Aspen Ideas Festival: 'Put your damn phone down' say social media gurus

texting teenagers today learn the bad behavior of parents obsessed with email it's okay to put people on hold "

You want horror stories about modern digital technology and its effects on society? Not that teenagers who sleep with their phones. The girl with the texts in the shower with a plastic bag. The constant e-mail and publication of Facebook updates during breakfast and dinner.

The company can not recover by the emergence of a generation of children who use mobile phones long before they have a driver's license, and regularly can send up to 3000 SMS per month.

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But what parents can do to help, when they are glued to their iPhones or face a "work-life blur" thanks to the Blackberry, allowing the invisible hand of the office in the reach evenings and weekends?

A battery gurus Aspen Ideas Festival differed on exactly the impact for better or for worse - but largely agree on one point, summed up by Bob Schukai:

From time to time, put the phone down and damn interact with humans.

a more nuanced wine

Sherry Turkle, professor of social sciences at MIT, who spent years after adolescents and the use of new media and social.

Turkle is concerned that the confidence of teenagers on their mobile and social media can be left unable to speak effectively, develop empathy and - not least - to cope with being alone or with difficult social situations by "rescue" through their mobile phones.

But where adolescents learn from their behavior? His parents, Turkle says:

are parents who are texting while driving, are the parents who are texting during dinner.

Therefore, it is parents who teach their children that, in essence, you are fine, with a dinner with text messages.

• are parents who are modeling the behavior that is putting people on hold.
• This childhood presentation to the constant intrusion of digital cameras began in childhood, with what Turkle calls "breastfeeding while texting."

The answer, according to Turkle, is that parents refrain. "At school pick-up, if your child is coming, which is not the time to make that last call," she said

parents can also set rules on digital media, where it is used at home, the establishment of what she calls "sacred spaces" in the kitchen or in rooms where text messages or e-mail is prohibited. "It sounds so simple, but many families can not do it," she said.

It is also important that parents give their children time with both sides, leaving aside your Blackberry or iPhone -. What is clear why

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