I first heard that Jo was writing this book last year, when she saw a blogpost I’d written for Amy http://www.amyboucherpye.com/2016/05/…. I’ve read this book mostly on the train, and have really enjoyed the mix of personal story (both Jo’s own & those she’s found) mixed in with drawing upon the biblical story of David. I’ve always been fascinated by how we find our identity, particularly in family, friends, work and place we live – and Jo brought so many of those out. Jo’s been quite vulnerable in this re struggles in finding her own place and identity, and that this will always be a lifelong journey – with a strong emphasis on learning to settle ‘where you are’ for as long as you are there.
Interesting article highlighted by @pmphillips re Raising the Digital Natives (digital native being a term I’m uncomfortable with)
Questions have been raised about the effects of technology use at a young age and the potential impact that this may have on a child’s brain development. On a social level, the use of technology by children may inhibit their social development and makes it less likely that they will recognise human emotion, presumably leading to difficulty in feeling empathy or compassion towards others. Beyond basic development issues comes the issue of forming individual identity. Where before humans were only expected to develop a single working identity they are now expected to develop and maintain two—one in the physical world, and one in cyberspace.
This poses an issue on two levels: the first being the child’s own expectation of themselves in developing and maintaining two identities, the second being the expectation of them by others in the physical and digital spaces. On one hand, the digital space consists of a community whose members require an individual to be extroverted, attractive, interesting; on the other hand, the realities of the physical space demand the individual to be compliant, civilised, and ‘normal’. This split in identity isn’t realistic to maintain, and what may end up happening is that the more prominent, appealing identity ends up dominating and putting the other one at risk. In other words, a child, not yet having fully developed mentally or socially, will be far more vulnerable to criticism and may choose an identity that they feel will be accepted by those in the online community—abandoning the real life identity they hold separately in physical life.
Home: the quest to belong by Jo Swinney