The Perils of Mobile Phones

On assembly I spoke to the students about my concerns with mobile phones. I compared our society’s unquestioning willingness to provide mobile phone technology to young people as being not unlike handing out the AK47 machine gun to students. After much scoffing and mirth from the students I presented my case. Just like the machine gun, mobile phones have the potential to cause significant harm, maybe not physical damage as a gun does, but damage of another sort nonetheless. It is widely accepted that an epidemic is sweeping the country of people causing enormous psychic harm to others and to themselves through the potential afforded by their phones.

Information technology has opened the world on a scale that was unimaginable when we were growing up. Phones, ipads and computers give our children a tool with such profound capacity it makes the head reel if you stop for long and think about it. No longer are the sets of Britannica or World Book Encyclopaedias given pride of place in the family home as the font of knowledge nor is the family television a place where all congregate to watch a show together. When we were growing up there was one telephone and it was almost impossible to have a ‘private’ conversation in the family home – communal living was simply how we were raised. As a consequence, we developed a more refined sense of what we could say to others and we had to learn to share, to be mindful of others.

Today our children have been liberated from what are now considered restrictive environments – search engines open the world at a touch, multiple entertainment opportunities exist in the home – everyone has the potential to do their own thing as long as you have enough data. And who bothers to use a land line in this age? As an individual you are able to pursue your interests relentlessly and constantly with few limitations. The ‘self’ has been empowered above all others. Hence the marketing of ipads and iphones with the ‘i’ given pride of place.

Increasingly, I have been reflecting on how the opportunities afforded by information technology requires much greater maturity and responsibility than when I was of a similar age to the students I teach. They have far greater power to access, view, and say what they like to whomever they like in the digital world.

In 2016 a video was released titled #MoreThanMean – women in sports ‘face’ harassment. In this, two female sports journalists sit and listen to men read tweets and comments that have been posted about them. As the men read, the comments become more derogatory, profane and abominable. The men reading them become increasingly uncomfortable and ashamed, even though these are not things said or written by them. Similarly, I watched on youtube celebrities reading abusive posts sent to them. At first it is amusing but the cumulative effect quickly becomes horrifying – how can human beings say such things to one another?

Both are examples of the destructive use of information technology – individuals, cloaked in anonymity, feel they can vent and rant in the most obnoxious manner and not be held responsible or accountable for the public airing of their poisonous utterances. And if you listen closely enough you hear the self-loathing and insecurities of the individuals who post such material.

Furthermore, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald (‘At 21, the net hasn’t come of age, it’s a sex-crazed teen’) provided disturbing statistics. Twenty-five per cent of all search engine requests involve pornography and thirty per cent of all downloads are pornography. It would seem that rather than liberating and enlightening, information technology is creating a web that ensnares and enslaves individuals in a world that debases and degrades the human spirit.

In saying that, information technology is here, it is powerful and a necessity for contemporary life. As a consequence, young people need to be well prepared within an ethical and moral framework that supports them in such an environment. In some way you could argue that more than ever before the imperative for young people to be immersed in understanding what is right and wrong is never more paramount than today. Information technology gives them much greater freedom therefore they need to know how to decide what is right and what is wrong.

This is where the home-school nexus is so critical. Neither one can do it alone. If home and school reinforce each other then we are more likely to be successful in imbuing young people with positive and uplifting values. We have to live what we ‘preach’ – the first thing that teenagers smell out is hypocrisy. This means, everything we say and do needs to be driven by the values that we espouse – if not those values appear hollow and meaningless to teenagers. For all of us this is a dilemma because our very humanity makes us flawed. But there is hope, hope in the fact that if our intent is driven by good and that we are seen to be striving to do what is good then teenagers will accept our flaws (while enjoying pointing them out).

So how do we help our young people? According to the experts, and if we apply our stated values to the use of technology, then possibly this is a beginning.

Some basic rules when using technology:

Treat others as you would have them treat you.
Don’t write or say anything that you would not say to a person’s face or to your parents, teachers or aloud in public.
Likewise, don’t view or listen to something that you would feel uncomfortable sharing with your parents or teachers.
Bedrooms need to be technology free-zones. Technology needs to be used in the communal space of the home and left there.
Do what you say you are going to do – deceitfulness becomes a habit; easily dismissed at first but increasingly becomes a state of mind, a reflex reaction that is done without thought.
Adults need to be involved, aware and interested in what their young people are doing with technology.

At school, students in Years 7 to 10 are required to place their phone in a box in the classroom at the beginning of the lesson. Later in the lesson, students may be able to use their phone to complete learning activities. This measure is designed to support students’ learning. We found that if a student has a phone in their pocket, bag or on their desk they are so hard-wired that they can’t help but constantly check their phones. Ultimately, it distracts and disrupts a flow of concentration. Students who are unable to cooperate with these procedures will have their phone confiscated for the day. If it is an ongoing problem, then parents/guardians will be contacted and further measures put in place. Interestingly, some of the phones that have been confiscated are constantly going off with messages from parents to their son or daughter during class time. Should a parent/guardian need to contact their son or daughter urgently the contact needs to go through the College office.

Change is rapid, technology is increasingly flexible and adaptable and thus we must ensure that our sons and daughters are prepared to enter such a dynamic and fluid environment. This means arming them with values that are concrete and a foundation for their decision making. If we don’t, then the consequences can be dire.

Mr Mick Larkin - Assistant Principal

McCarthy Parents Association