EME6414 Journal

The Atlantic posted this article under the above headline. My answer: No. (I think I may have snorted as well.) The article is lengthy, but it presents statistics and research suggesting the generation of current teenagers (referred to as iGen) have been made unhappy, socially inept, and unprepared for the real world by smart phones and social media. It's a slightly more nuanced take than that summation, but, to me, the tone felt accusatory, as if teenagers have both had this thrusted upon them by an ill-intentioned society but are simultaneously culpable for their own demise by refusing to put down their phones and go play outside. I'm not sure the author, Jean Twenge, is making an argument in the article, rather presenting stats and analysis, which I appreciate, because I feel I've read far too many thinkpieces on how millenials have killed the housing industry and the napkin industry and all sorts of products that have died at the hands of tech-obsessed millenial

This is a follow-up on my last blog post, as I came across this article in The Atlantic shortly after writing the post about the death of my friend's mother and how friends reacted on social media. Fair warning, the article is tough to swallow at times and discusses an uneasy subject in a frank manner, though I do believe that is the point. The author of the article lost a sister and discusses the reactions of 'friends' on social media. She felt smothered by those publicly grieving for a sister whom she was still very much privately grieving. (One 'friend' even announced the passing on Facebook before the family could alert extended family/close friends.) The article touches (far more eloquently) on some of the points I noted in my last blog, including an interesting take on the difference between mourning and grief and the gray space that exists in between. Mourning can be suited to social media, where friends and family can step in from around the world to co

Today's blog is rather somber in nature, but I've lately done a lot of thinking about how we grieve in the digital age. My best friend since the age of 9 lost her mother to a sudden and quick bout of cancer three months ago. The timing for such a loss is never good, but in this case, it was particularly hard, as my friend, at age 24, was getting married two weeks later. My friend is a private person and likely would not have mentioned the loss on social media, had it not been for the barrage of timeline posts and messages she suddenly received. While all the messages and posts were no doubt sent with good intentions, to my friend, and largely to me, it felt strange. It was odd in a way that is hard to articulate to see folks come out of the woodwork and send messages of condolence after not having spoken to my friend (or even met her mother) for many years. She did appreciate the support and expressed that appreciation to me, but in a way, it felt like people were jumping o

I have lost control over a Facebook group intended for community building and informal learning. More aptly, we've lost the tiny bit of control we once had of the group. The closed group was set up after numerous requests from parents (seriously, there was impressive insistence involved) for a parent/student group for those studying abroad in a certain location. The parents actually set the group up, but invited my team of employees to join and essentially act as facilitators/moderators/content providers. But it's gone off the rail. Because I wasn't the originator of the group, I wasn't totally comfortable with stepping in at the beginning and setting ground rules, but that was a mistake. What we were told was going to be a group for FAQs and general 'what to expect when your student is abroad' has turned into selfie-sharing, million question, angst-ridden mayhem. No one reads down the group to see if their questions have already been answered, parents are s