Who’s Watching the Kids?
While we quibble over politics, dismay about the “state of things”, and generally find more to worry and pre-occupy ourselves with rather than enjoy, I find myself asking this question – as I keep my own thoughts wrapped up in this device, and shut out the noise from the outside world with ANC headphones, I wonder;
Who’s watching the kids?
What’s going on through their heads as they absorb the world around them, or stay checked in to their own screens, or into their own worlds of fantasy and drama, or just plain ignorance and inexperience.
…Or, maybe they are happy and joyful, and I’m just too furloughed with stress and anxiety from alternate dimensions to experience the pleasure of presence with my kids.
…Or, maybe they are just the same shunted into their own dopamine chambers they don’t want to come out of. YouTube and Fortnight provide enough lift to carry an idle mind through the abyss of boredom for days on end.
Either way, I’m scrolling through absolute terrors on the internet, and my kid’s asking me what I’m doing.
“oh just watching death and police violence on Twitter”
“just scrolling booty work-out influencers on Instagram”
And we keep this all shielded and hidden from them, while it’s curiously right in front of our faces all the time.
We discourage them from violence and any expressions of aggression, then put them to bed and play COD and watch GOT. Why is the extreme violence such a passive norm in our technology and media?
Where are the pleasantries and peaceful aspects of the technology that has all this potential?
Where are the movies about a relatively benign and happy future?
Or the games about exploring new worlds without a gun in your hand?
Where are the kids freely running at the park and hula hooping and playing catch?
We have stolen that joy even from them, and replaced it with misplaced and imagined fears, that we all have the power to dispel by being better role models and not modeling them a world that is built on our own dissatisfactions and our own depression. So…
Give the kids a better way forward, by making one.
-§parrow