Miller’s Talk
This week for tech, we watched a Ted Talk by Jesse Miller called Re-Evaluate, Rethink, Release. Miller is a public speaker who’s talks focus on social media awareness, media literacy, and digital citizenship. Miller’s hope, is that his message will inspire change and actually encourage adults, specifically educators to take action – not just spread awareness by vilifying social media or the internet.
Throughout the video, Miller emphasizes over and over again how posting to social media is second nature for today’s youth – he notes children are on their phones before they even get out of bed and competent with tablets and devices before they even reach kindergarten. In the same tone, Miller includes the idea that for young children, technology acts as a pacifier -“the children aren’t well-behaved, they’re pacified.” In addition to how open the internet seems to be, we hear how there is no mediator in the online world. There is not a presence of authority online to keep things under control. Miller then addresses the lack of forethought present in children and teens when they’re using social media and how they seem to post every part of their day online and interact as much if not more online than in person.
Miller concludes his talk with the thought that children need an understanding of when to put their phones down and take in their surroundings with their senses, not a camera.
Media Literacy: knowing when and what to record or post, as well as having an awareness of the world around you, and knowing when to put your device down.
Jesse Miller
Digital Citizenship: “refers to the ability to engage positively, critically and competently in the digital environment, drawing on the skills of effective communication and creation, to practice forms of social participation that are respectful of human rights and dignity through the responsible use of technology.”
https://www.coe.int/en/web/digital-citizenship-education/digital-citizenship-and-digital-citizenship-education
And?
Technology is a 4 letter word
I think technology is an incredibly delicate subject in today’s world and in today’s classrooms. Children are posting BeReals, sending snap streaks, filming tiktoks and contributing to a culture specific to their generation. Any attempt to balance or moderate the use of social media has to take into account this is part of their society, it is as natural to them as saying hello when you answer the phone. And understandably so, as Miller said, it’s how they were pacified – how they were occupied by adults, guardians, parents, teachers. Miller advocates for media literacy and digital citizenship as a solution to help create balance for growing online worlds and IRL.
“We expect our youth to have an understanding of appropriate dialogue and content sharing.”
Jesse Miller
We expect children to know what’s appropriate for online when they have no real guidance showing them what is appropriate and what’s not. The internet itself has every kind of content imaginable and no guideline for what’s right or wrong. Like Miller said, there’s not an authority online, there’s not a positive influence for kids to follow that’s grounded in reality and actually monitoring behaviour. But there is an abundance of everything else being posted online or in tv shows by influencers and celebrities. This kind of media that kids are ingesting often contains very adult content and behaviour and I think kids are mimicking this behaviour in potentially unsafe ways. The internet safety geared towards kids is about avoiding predators and there isn’t really a voice for teaching kids to be mindful of what they’re posting – and if there is it argues against how kids grow up on social media seeing content creators post many details of their lives.
I loved what Miller said about technology as a pacifier because I feel like that is so often what it’s used for. Children are given access to devices at increasingly younger ages and parents/adults often think they are very well behaved when really they’re just distracted. And because technology is babysitting, kids are losing certain social skills as well. These skills are important, but in a technological world, so is being able to navigate the online world.
