Editor, Ceres Courier,
My traditionalist heart inwardly wept as I read your August 19 column.
Yes, it is all changing. People want news bites, and proper, labor-intensive researched reporting is a rarity, and even when it happens, this generation doesn’t appreciate it.
And no, the next generation won’t miss the prior one, and all the richness that existed pre-2006, before Internet-connected cell phones hypnotized the masses, because the next generation won’t even be able to conceptualize a world without people’s faces shoved into screens.
It’s such an unhealthy preoccupation, these phones.
We become unto gods. We don’t need to ask our forebears for advice, because ChatGPT can advise us on any topic in seconds. Everything is on-demand. We have less respect for the wisdom of our elders and less respect for the innocence of children.
Parents happily gift their kids with phones at age 10, and the children now have a ship by which they can explore any worldly topic. Young kids with new phones no longer need to ask mom or dad for advice - they have Google.
And “monitoring software” is pointless. The important thing is guarding kids’ innocence. Monitoring software doesn’t magically give your kids back their lost innocence, once they see something online that is inappropriate.
That innocence is lost forever - Like a tornado siren in the distance, warning you of a tornado that already destroyed your home five minutes before.
And though every measurement indicates that less screen time equals more happy, productive, insightful children, our public schools still don’t “follow the science” - even kindergarteners are expected to use their iPads in school every single day.
Jeff, your integrity and work ethic is the reason why we keep subscribing!
J.A. Wight
LETTERS POLICY: Letters will be considered for publication but must be signed and include an address and phone number. Letters should be 250 words or less and be void of libel. Send to The Ceres Courier, P.O. Box 1958, Manteca, CA 95336 or emailed to jeffb@cerescourier.com.
