Irish Examiner view: Let’s learn to control, not serve, tech

US president Donald Trump said he will not take part in a virtual debate with Joe Biden. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

Great, unexpected, and almost incomprehensible change can become the norm so quickly that it is not recognised as change — or at least the depth of that change is not fully appreciated. We may not recognise how disruptive gently, gently change is until it's too late. It happens quietly and all of a sudden our world is very different.

It's just 60 years since America's first presidential TV debate was held on September 26, 1960. John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon faced each other in Chicago but television was not kind to Nixon, it showed him sweaty and shifty. Kennedy's charm won the day and the goalposts around political campaigning were moved forever. The pandemic has moved them again.

The second US presidential debate in this year's campaign is scheduled for Thursday, October 15, in Florida. However, the Commission on Presidential Debates has decided that the event will be a virtual one to try to minimise the risk of spreading the disease. US president Donald Trump, recovering from Covid-19, has said he will not take part in a virtual debate.

That decision may be reviewed but if it is not, Mr Trump won't be the only person choosing to step away from our all-pervasive cyber world at that time. The very next day is CyberSafeIreland's first 'cyber break' day. The objective is simple.  

The second presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden is due to take place in Florida on Thursday, October 15. (Olivier Douliery/Pool vi AP)

 CyberSafeIreland wants us to put away our phones and other linked-up devices for just 24 hours from 5pm on October 16. On the face of it, that seems a sensible, worthy, and easily achieved objective. 

Which one of us would not benefit from a brief cyber silence? Which one of us might not enjoy stepping away from the relentless, voracious, often toxic digital merry-go-round, even if for only 24 hours? Who would not enjoy a modern, secular tech retreat? Nevertheless, it is far easier to think about this idea than it is to deliver it.

We have become so utterly dependent, psychologically and emotionally, on the connections, the exchanges, and the occasional affirmations from that small screen in our pocket that separation, even the briefest one, is more daunting than it should be. Though the pandemic has shown how dependent we, and our economy, are on connectivity, that does not mean we can ignore the darker consequences of that 24/7 presence. 

CyberSafeIreland, after a survey involving 3,800 primary school children, reports that 12% of 8-12-year-olds spend 61 days online every year. That's 61 days — a sixth of the year — not just fleeting visits on 61 days. That, amazingly and disturbingly, is just the tip of the iceberg. 

In August, a study from the National Anti Bullying Centre, DCU, and European Commission confirmed that pandemic isolation accelerated young people's use of smartphones. Some 71% of children said they used smart devices more often during the lockdown. Almost three-quarters of children said they used social media more often than they did before the lockdown.

The statistics showing how our world, especially young people's worlds, has so dramatically changed, how the focus of their lives has shifted, will define humanity in coming decades — if it has not done so already.  This shift is unstoppable but that does not mean we cannot learn to control it better. Turning off that little screen, even for a few hours, next Friday would be a good start and a good statement of intent.