Kathleen P. Allen is the author of the new book Stuck in Our Screens: Setting Aside Social Drama and Restoring Human Connection. She is also an educator.
Q: What inspired you to write Stuck in Our Screens?
A: The book began as a discussion of adolescent social drama, a construct similar to conflict that can morph into bullying. But after 40,000 words, two things happened.
One, I realized that getting teens to stop doing drama is very challenging; hence, I had little expert advice for parents or teachers on how to manage this behavior.
The second was the stark realization that there are many influential, powerful, and high-profile adults in our society who do more social drama than teens do, and with far worse consequences. It didn’t seem fair to put adolescents under the microscope and call them out, when it was adults who needed to be held to account for their bad behavior.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: Initially the book was based solely on my own research findings on adolescent social drama. When I chose to shift the focus of the book from teens to adults, I needed to do a lot more reading and researching on the genesis and the explanation for adults doing social drama.
This led me to issues like reality TV, mis- and dis- information, societal narcissism, our growing isolation, our incessant focus on celebrity-ism and online performance, and addiction to our screens.
Q: In the book, you write, “We can give youth a pass on the drama they do that is part of their development, but we cannot survive a future where too many adults are doing drama, routinely and publicly.” Do you see this problem continuing, and does it compare with any other previous periods in U.S. history?
A: We are at the end of the current technology honeymoon, and I think the next few years will be very telling when it comes to how we will choose to allow technology to dominate and manipulate our lives, or to regulate it before it owns us completely.
Social scientists are beginning to see the damaging impact of too much screen time for many youth and its corresponding relationship to mental health problems. As far as adults are concerned, the problems of screen desensitization, moral disengagement, disinhibition, and a host of bad traits are just as much a problem for adults as they are for kids.
I would suggest that the invention of the telephone and the television had significant impacts on people’s lives and behaviors, but nothing like we are experiencing now. The impact of internet technology has been faster and more ubiquitous that the land line or the black and white, three-channel TV were.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: Writing this book brought me to a place of serious concern for our humanity and for the future of our society. In the end, I offer some suggestions for managing the problems that living in screens creates.
But in the end, it will come down to our willingness to have a society-wide discussion on who we are and who we want to be. It’s about our identity, our values, and our ability to talk to each other. I hope the book will stimulate a civil and intelligent conversation that produces thoughtful and wise changes.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: At the moment, nothing, but I have an interest in how artificial intelligence is going to affect human development. I’ve started reading and thinking about this, but my husband will go nuts if he thinks I’m going to write another book!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’d love to hear from your readers if they have any thoughts to share on these topics. They can email me at stuckinourscreens@gmail.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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