Josh Prowse made a novel vow for lent this year, Erin Anderssen writes in Saturday's Globe.
The 35-year-old computer science teacher from Calgary has decided to do with out what many people would consider a digital vice: Facebook.
And as society becomes more plugged in, some continue to wonder about the impact of technology on society and the mind.
Late last month, Susan Greenfield, a pre-eminent neuroscientist at Oxford, warned the British Parliament that if our tech obsession continues "the mid-21st-century mind might be almost infantilized" by the psychological effects of onscreen friendships. Young brains, she suggested, are being trained to process fast-action, instant images, potentially harming their ability to manage social behaviours off-screen. Drawing a comparison to the way people today rarely witness an animal being butchered but eat meat from a package, she suggested that "perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror" to the messiness and unpredictability of real-time human interactions.
Psychologist Aric Sigman sounded a more immediate alarm a few weeks earlier by suggesting in Biologist magazine that spending too much time online — along with watching television and listening to iPods during family dinner — was leading to loneliness, and that loneliness has been convincingly linked to diseases such as diabetes and cancer, even dementia. Though his paper never specifically names Facebook, it inspired the doomsday headline: Facebook Causes Cancer.
"Those are just old people who do not use the technology and do not have a social life," scoffs Mr. Prowse, who says his students use the Internet largely to organize their real-life friendships, not replace them. "Facebook is a tool. Is a hammer good or bad? It depends on how you use it."
As a tech nut and a teacher, Mr. Prowse is able to offer an insider's perspective on life among social-networking addicts. Earlier today, he took questions on his life sans-Facebook and his experiences in the classroom.
Please note: Mr. Prowse answered your questions on his own behalf, experiences and opinions, and not those of the Calgary Board of Education or Lester B. Pearson High School.
Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com, writes: Hi, Josh, thanks for being with us today. To start us off, I'm assuming that your students are all fans of Facebook. What do they think of your decision?
Mr. Prowse replies: About 85 per cent of my students use Facebook, and in discussion with them today, it was clear that it is something they do in their "spare" moments, sort of like digital doodling. In fact, several of them only go on a few times a month, or only for one specific use (for example, a community or interest group). Their response? Giving up Facebook is not a big deal.
Allison Dunfield writes: And now, we'll turn the discussion over to some of our readers. Our first question is from Regina.
Wade Z. from Regina, Sask. writes: Don't you think the importance of Facebook and other social network sites is overblown? That they are just one more avenue to communicate... nothing more?
Mr. Prowse replies: Hi Wade! I agree that social networking is another way to communicate. So was the radio, telephone, and television. Every media has an impact on our lives, and I think the hype over social networking is a combination of interest in its potential impact (there are new and very creative uses all the time), and the drive for publicity from the web companies. Remember that there are potentially billions of dollars at stake.
