I noted elsewhere that Neal Stephenson wrote about this in Diamond Age, way back -- tech like this is not a substitute for parenting.
In the past few years, I've been learning intensely about communities and family: got married and learning to be a step-father. I am also involved in a legal-tech startup and got to hear how lawyers think about governance and law. I don't think social media is a substitute for community either, although it can be beneficial _if_ used within the context of community.
Here are some of the things I learned:
- There is a tension between global and local concerns. Neither alone can address everything. Local concerns -- communities -- have people living there. They have a stake in their local environment. There are issues when people outside of a community (people without stakes within the community, who are not residents) try to influence things. This could be anything from coordinating regional concerns (such as people building upscale neighborhoods in a flood control area built by the Army Corp of Engineers in Houston), or outside investors holding municipal bonds.
- I discovered Christopher Alexander's work on pattern languages and designs. I found his keynote to the OOPSLA '96 conference. His work inspired the design patterns of OOP as well as Human Interface Design, but I don't think his vision and philosophy was ever fully implemented. His life's work somehow addresses how to design for both global and local concerns. The idea is that architects develop pattern languages that will always result in cohesive, livable designs (global), and the actual users of that pattern language are the people who live within that community (local). Although this is primarily focused on building design, I think it has some overlap with governance. Physical environment will shape and influence how people interact with each other.
- There are people who are isolated because they don't fit with their local community's norm. Allowing them to connect with other people around the world is great. However, I think it is important for a person's psychological health to have some connection with their local neighbors.
- My wife and I tried allowing my step-daughter to have a smart phone, mainly so we can reach her in an emergency. She quickly found ways to become absorbed into it, neglecting her responsibilities to the family and our expectations for her as parents. We tried using more tech to restrict it. She got around them -- claims innocence (and to this day, I don't really know whether she was or not). In the end, we got her a flip phone. She called a "granny phone", and we blocked calls and texts at the carrier level. She doesn't have her own tablet or computer anymore: we have family devices that are kept in the family office and she is forbidden to take it in her room. (Where she still sometimes sneaks it to bed and stays up all night watching youtube videos).
- My wife told my daughter that she had to be at least 13 to get on social media, and she is forbidden from it. That was half a year ago. I had always wanted to get my daughter to _earn_ her smartphone (and by extension, social media) through some sort of modern-day rite of passage. But over the months, I am more and more inclined to forbid her from social media until she graduates high school.