[Air-L] smartphones/teens/hyperbole

[Unger, Johann]

Most definitely - the article does make some reasonable (and reasoned points), but largely it is tapping into the usual moral panics around childhood, technology and particularly the intersection of the two.

On tracing things back through history - I used to use a set of quotes that showed how each generation complained about new technologies (bark, slates, quills, ball-point pens etc.) ruining the writing skills of a new generation of youths… until I found out the whole set was made up, as detailed in various blogs & articles:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/21/students-bark/
Still, no smoke without fire, right?

Best, Johnny.

Dr J W Unger
Lecturer and Academic Director of Summer Programmes
Department of Linguistics and English Language
Lancaster University
LA1 4YL

e-mail: j.unger at lancaster.ac.uk<mailto:j.unger at lancaster.ac.uk>
tel: +44 1524 592591<tel:+44%201524%20592591>
Follow me on Twitter @johnnyunger<http://twitter.com/#!/johnnyunger>

On 26 Aug 2017, 14:41 +0100, Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>, wrote:
Re Galen Panger's comment on the list:

"I actually thought the article was hyperbolic, and I felt disappointed to
see it get so much attention. I think there is reason for some concern,
I would have liked to see the evidence presented less selectively
and one-sidedly."

Heartedly agree. Keith Hampton and I have an article asserting that each
generation thinks that community has been lost as compared to the previous
one. Now, it is mobile phones. Two decades ago, it was the internet.

You can keep tracing this back to Tommy Jefferson in 1787.

And perhaps further.


Barry Wellman

A vision is just a vision if it's only in your head
Step by step, link by link, putting it together
Streisand/Sondheim
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http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman twitter: @barrywellman
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