DMB Digest: Today's Dope
It ain't the same weed.
Remember sex, drugs, and rock & roll? Those were the good ole days weren’t they? It wasn’t that long ago I remember working with teens and young adults whose lives had been totally shipwrecked due to one, two, or all three of these things. (Well, not really rock and roll. Rock and roll never did anything to anyone. That was just something old people made up because they missed Elvis…or Big Band, or Harry Belafonte.
I have two teenage sons. There’s nothing I can do to get them to party, drink, or do anything remotely risky like the stuff my parents were worried me and my siblings would fall victim to. Lord knows I’ve tried. They just shake their heads and look at me with pity. “Dad, I don’t think that would be a very good idea,” they say.
These days the teen traps are all centered around smart phones, AI, and identity confusion. And if I’m being perfectly honest, parents are not up for it. Not for any of it. Most of us are still looking around for the parties. Or thinking we’re gonna be the cool parents by letting our kids drink at home. Meanwhile, we’re nursing a full-blown smart phone addiction of our own. And we don’t even know what AI is (other than something kids use to cheat on their homework). As far as identity stuff goes, we’re either stuck in black and white land or we’re preaching whatever you want is fine. Neither of which is helpful, by the way.
It turns out, kids are still dealing with a drug problem these days. It’s ultimately still sex, drugs, and rock & roll. It always has been, and it always will be. It’s just that the feel-goods and quick fixes change. The experimentation takes different forms. Today we’ve dealing with addictions to convenience and dopamine and hyper-individualism (a new subspecies of tribalism which used to be known as clicks). Now the click is me. And AI is an information superhighway to reinforcing me. And my devices provide me with the type of connectivity that edify rather than interrupt the whole experiment.
Experimenting with identity no longer requires a change in style, or new group of friends, or a new place to loiter. The path to an easier and less stressful life is available to kids through their devices. And now there’s no longer all the interpersonal mess or hard work of learning to navigate relationships face to face. AI can put all the face on it we need.
The solution will certainly not be to ban rock and roll by sensationalizing its association with Satanism. We won’t help our kids or the coming generations by demonizing AI or burning phones in a big heap. We can start by putting down our own smart phones, being present with people face to face, and cautioning our children against passive content spiraling. We can raise their awareness of how AI companies are marketing technology toward them with no knowledge of the long terms effects of using said technology. We can teach them that sometimes difficult things are worth doing.
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