We can't read everything, but we can find essential voices

In which tmatt points readers to two important (one agonizing) signals about smartphone-crisis realities

You can’t read everything.

In fact, the odds are good that you can’t read everything you want to read from the many niche publications and newsletters you are now taking in place of the “bundled” mainstream news sources you once trusted (see my Religion & Liberty essay on the logic of what is happening to news).

This brings us to a question that people ask me all the time: How do I find “news” I can trust on the subjects that matter the most to me? Answering that question is one of my main goals at Rational Sheep. Hold that thought, because I want to point readers to a pair of essential (I believe) smartphone-crisis articles at The Free Press.

But first: In recent years, I have advised people to carefully create a list of Twitter (now X) scribes they trust — people on the left and right and, especially, in the hard-to-predict middle. See this GetReligion post: “After 303 Creative: Can readers find Twitter voices (hello David French) that help us think?” Here is part of that:

… I think it is important for news consumers to seek out informed, high-quality points of view (on Twitter and elsewhere) that make them uncomfortable.

You see, we cannot read everything in a world in which thousands of niche, advocacy media outlets compete for our attention. …

So who do I follow? Remember that the goal here is to note the URLs offered by these thinkers, pointing to news coverage and documents worthy of attention. Also, you are looking for writers and readers who are willing to critique and even criticize “their side” of public debates, looking for weaknesses and important new information.

To see my own list, click here and read the whole post or surf to the end.

It’s clear, to me, that Substack is the next phase of this news process. Again, we cannot read everything and, yes, we cannot afford to pay for everything. But we are learning to make decisions about which Substack scribes we need to follow for free (evaluating some of their work) and others that we need to pay money support all of their work.

I think the goal is to find writers that (a) provide new content you want and (b) save you time by pointing important content from other writers you should follow (to one degree or another).

Here are two Substack universe essays that believe Rational Sheep “signal” seekers must read. The first is by Aidan Busch: “I Teach at a Phone-Free School. Here's How It's Going. Could one small adjustment reduce bullying, slash anxiety, and boost grades and self-efficacy?”

The key is that Busch surveyed students to ask how the project is going (the results are charted in the article). Meanwhile here is a key chunk of summary material:

Even though students self-reported that they disliked the policy, its clear from the responses that they still believe that such a policy benefits them in important ways. I see this most dramatically in the question about academic performance. My students are aware that having a phone on their person makes it harder to focus, showing that they intuitively know what research demonstrates: the mere presence of a phone can detract from cognitive capacity!

The real question to me is not if schools should go phone-free (it seems like a clear yes), but how. What kinds of policies do schools implement to maximize learning yet still retain a healthy culture of trust and personal responsibility? It’s easy to imagine a scenario where we become so zealous in maintaining a distraction-free learning environment that no-phone policies quickly begin to feel draconian rather than liberating. I can think of a few situations in which I’ve sacrificed some (hard earned) social capital with a student to go toe-to-toe with them over their phone — and its hard to tell if that’s worth it.

Is this a change that must be attempted and then improved, with more effective methods? The answer appears to be “yes.”

Will all efforts to limit smartphone damage work? Clearly, the answer is “no.” But again, should people at least attempt to change the status quo?

Here is a painful, agonizing look at that reality from Kristin Bride, writing for After Babel: “Keeping Our Kids Safe Online​​ — Reflections from a bereaved mother.” She provided the photo, above.

The key is what she has learned since the suicide of her cyber-bullied son, Carson. There is no way to know what part of this essay to share. I chose the following because it stresses that tragedy struck, even after attempts to control digital technology in their home.

We quickly learned through the school community that Carson had been cyberbullied by his high school “Snapchat friends,” who were using anonymous apps to hide their identities. Carson had received nearly a hundred harassing, threatening, and sexually explicit messages in the weeks leading up to his death. Carson had experienced some in-school bullying, which he always told us about, and we reported it to the school administration, who handled it. When Carson’s school went to online learning, I felt some relief in that I had my sons at home, safe from the drama that happened when school was in session. I could not have been more wrong. 

Shortly before his death, Carson reached out to a smaller group of classmates and asked them to come visit him at work and pick up a pizza. He was proud that he had gotten a job and he wanted to see some of his “friends” after months of COVID isolation. The anonymous responses that Carson received back were awful and cruel. We are convinced that this was the “final straw,” and my beautiful boy died helpless, hopeless, and humiliated. 

We were conservative parents with technology. Carson did not have a smartphone until 8th grade, a very old model with no apps. We had hoped that it would stay that way, but when he reached high school, he begged for Snapchat because that was the way all the kids connected. We had no idea that Snapchat had integrated anonymous apps onto its platform. Although we kept a watchful eye on our kids' phones, social media companies, with their ever-changing features, made it virtually impossible for parents to keep up.  

It was 2020, and books like The Anxious Generation were not out then. Very likely, researchers were still pondering the exponential increase in anxiety and depression that we now know is — in part — linked to teen social media use. We were not perfect parents, but when I read Jonathan Haidt’s suggested reforms (e.g., no smartphones until high school, no social media until 16) to change the “collective norm,” we had covered almost all of them.   

We had frequent conversations about all that could go wrong online at the dinner table. Never ask for or send nudes, and never type something online that you wouldn’t want on a billboard with your name and face next to it. We emphasized that these mistakes are preventable and will follow you in life. I am proud to say that Carson followed these rules even when his abusers were being so cruel. He asked them to swipe up and identify themselves to talk things out in person, but no one ever did.

Here is one more byte of crucial information from this read-it-all essay. Where does the battle go next? Bride writes:

The anonymous app used to cyberbully Carson — YOLO — lured young kids into thinking that they would be safe with a “pop-up” screen that stated, “No bullying. If you send harassing messages to our users, your identity will be revealed” and “You will be banned for inappropriate usage.”  In the weeks following Carson’s death, I ​reached out to YOLO on four separate occasions asking them to follow their own policies and “reveal and ban” Carson’s tormentors. I was ignored every time, which fueled my anger and, more importantly, my desire to become a vocal social media reform advocate.

Does it help to point readers to this kind of material?

I hope so. I will continue to do this kind of work here at Rational Sheep. I think it is crucial that readers share this content with busy parents, clergy, teachers, etc.

We can’t read everything. But we can find ways to help point friends and colleagues to material that we need to read — if we care about our children, grandchildren and the children to come.

FIRST IMAGE: No cell phone school sign for sale here, via a Pinterest page.