The Dean’s Blog ‘Windows – part one’

“I guess reality is just not my best window.”
This is, for me, an awful statement. It speaks of an experience of living quite alien to me. It was not said by one of your students, but it was a teenage boy; he was being interviewed about his perception and use of the various current technologies a few weeks back. What did the boy really mean? This first article explained that this particular boy said he functioned better in situations where he felt empowered to make important decisions. Our reality was just another window that usually closed for him late afternoon. It was not so tragic; as long as he functioned well elsewhere.The thesis was that as there are more worlds for the teen to get involved in then ‘reality’, the real one, may become less vital and less interesting compared with MMORPG games, the media world of ipod and mp3 as well as the ability to chat and react through msn, myface, myspace, youtube and so on. John Mangelaars, vice president, consumer and online, Microsoft EMEA, said, "Today's 'web generation' are increasingly living out their lives in the digital arena.” (Telegraph 10.02.09)

For us currently the Parent Generation…
As teenagers are anyway confused and confusing at the peak of puberty, their ability to judge the relative value of activities that absorb their focus and their sensory perception, may be weakened. This phenomenon is neither rare, nor is it surprising to the teen; only to the anxious parent for whom there is still only the real world with its social and financial stresses for which our offspring must be prepared as well as they possibly can be. And then for the current Parent Generation there are in addition films, books, TV and the web which we hold clearly as secondary –undoubtedly useful, entertaining and important in their place but we can prioritise them. There is little confusion for us. I exclude the male driving style exiting the carpark after watching a James Bond movie or ‘The Fast and the Furious’.

Moody and unpredictable months
So it follows that it may be difficult for us to understand and mediate successfully. Confiscating computer privileges at home may well not be the answer but a reassertion of parenting authority. Moving the computer to a communal space rather than letting it reside in the bedroom to be used till and at all hours may be more effective. However, a source of reassurance and confidence boosting for the teenage years should not merely be dismissed when the ardent aim of parents is to get through these dark, moody and unpredictable months(virtual years?) when the child is at times almost unrecognisable and the parent is aching to solve issues within the family. But what about the transfer of ethics from window A where the desirable culture is retribution, violence and license to speak and act without consideration to others, to window B where the code requires just the opposite?

Over 200kph on the autobahn?
It is perhaps a take on the old chestnut, ‘Do violent films engender violence in impressionable viewers?’ Do several hours at the console of sophisticatedly realistic driving simulation software, for example ‘GTA’, have anything at all to do with the allegedly growing number of young, male ‘Rasers’ who, willing to risk injury and death to themselves and others, race in a pre-owned EvoIX or WRX sti or M3 (the very cars that are popular in games) at, say, 100kph in 50 kph limits or over 200kph on the autobahn? It regularly happens in Kanton Zurich to the extent that such an act at such a speed now gets only one column inch in Tages Anzeiger. Unless, that is, there is total Blechschade or death. (The Kantonpolizei immediately take their license away but interestingly they are reporting that increasingly often these young males have already lost their license but go on driving nonetheless.) These rapid machines can easily be rented by kids in their late teens and early 20s. But then again maybe they would race and chase anyway, just the ‘guy thing’, of finding another adrenaline rush when testosterone kicks in, ‘boys in toys’ as it were.

A second statement made by an educated adult will stimulate the next Dean’s Blog.

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