Will the upcoming generation be the generation that unplugs? The generation that sees their parents walking around in a zombie trance with their hands permanently in the phone-holding claw-shaped position. The same parents that posted 143 pictures of the first birthday of their kids to the entire planet on social media. It didn’t stop there either…pictures were shared of them playing sports, on vacation, the first day of school. Stories were written about them. Personal stories. The young innocent ones, the first time their kid took a step or rode a bike without training wheels. The embarrassing ones, the first time using a toilet. And the downright invasions of privacy like going through puberty, and dating.
Will this generation be the ones that say, “enough”?
I understand technology isn’t going anywhere. Textbooks are on iPads, term papers are written on laptops, I get that. I’m talking about a generation that unplugs as part of their free time, their social time. Will this generation choose to walk in the woods without posting a picture to Instagram? #nofilter.
They’ve seen the most private moments of their parents’ lives shared too: marriage proposals recorded and posted to social media, gender reveals of their brothers and sisters announced by a live video of smashing a balloon with a baseball bat to see which color emerges. They’ve seen wedding dances go from private family affairs to which family can have the best choreographed reception dance become a viral hit on YouTube.
They’ve seen all of this. Everything moves so fast. Information is constant. I wonder if it will ever become too much?
-Pete
