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Does Difference Scare You?
At a progressive high school in the Bronx, a young woman shared with me an ongoing conversation from her Neuroscience class. I was surprised - neuroscience class, in high school? More evidence this generation of children is growing up in a vastly different world than mine. Her class was exploring a fascinating question – has the recent, rapid advance in technology pulled human beings out of our emotional comfort zone? I wish I could have a “do over” for that moment to pick her brain about the conversation between her fellow students, but my head began spinning so fast. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Did she mean that people today enjoy and fear the technological advances of the past hundred years? I could get my head around that. In fact, I have seen many people in my psychiatric practice who have a genuine fear of flying and, I have to admit, there are times when I am streaking through the sky, loosely strapped into a small seat contained in what feels like a tin can, that I can relate. If we were meant to travel in the air, God would have given us wings or at least a little Ativan. This particular phobia didn’t exist before the Wright brothers. But, I don’t think this was what she was talking about.
Maybe she was talking about my generation and anyone who was born before me (1962) who have that deer in the headlights look when something goes wrong on their computer. Most of the time, we mindlessly type documents as if we are still sitting comfortably in front of our favorite IBM Selectra typewriter. But the minute the computer crashes or does something unexpected, we might as well be sitting in front of the control panel for the space shuttle. In the US, baby boomers are turning fifty at a rate of about 1 every 8 minutes. The brains of “older Americans” were not entrained with computers in childhood, so figuring out the glitches is not an intuitive process. Children born in the last twenty years have been using some form of advanced technology since birth. My children and their friends are wired to their computers and gadgets - the technology seamlessly integrated into their brain maps the way a blind person’s stick is literally mapped onto his sensory brain as an extension of his arm. My son frequently builds virtual cities and navigates conflicts with kids all over the globe using the computer game, Minecraft. My daughter‘s science class is communicating with a discovery team currently stationed deep in the ocean. Just last week, she used the Internet to send a question directly to one of the scientists on the research team. They are not frightened by any of it. On the other hand, an older friend of mine, no intellectual slouch (she scored an 800 on her biology achievement test as an adolescent) can become paralyzed when she loses a document on her computer, convinced she has erased it even though it is safely tucked behind the last window opened. For people who have not grown up with the computer and who have reluctantly brought them into their lives, technology certainly is stretching them well beyond their comfort zone. Children today think of computers and technology as their friends – when one crashes, they are disappointed, maybe even betrayed, but scared – no. What a difference a generation can make. In my house, the word icebox occasionally slips out of my partner’s mouth- sending the kids fleeing from the room Talk about scary!
As I thought further about the young woman’s concern that we are emotionally unable to manage the places technology takes us, a light bulb slowly lit up. Today’s technology takes us places we never knew we wanted to go. We can now eavesdrop on the functioning of the mind as easily as we can travel to the opposite side of the globe. For better or worse, we now have technology to watch war being fought, kids being bullied, and a fetus growing – in real time. There is very little buffer between the range of human experiences and the emotions they trigger. Reality TV allows you to witness intimate details of other people’s lives any time night or day. The inner lives of American Muslims, mothers who enter their toddlers in beauty pageants (really?!), men and women falling in love, and people grossing us out while overcoming their fear are just a few offerings on the buffet table of what I call “TMI TV” – too much information television. In this environment it is harder to dodge and hide from other’s opinions and beliefs when we disagree. Potentially exposed to big differences in culture, race and religion, we are one big exposed nerve ending! There is an upside to all the exposure. There are hundreds of social networking sites like Blogster, WeeWorld, and Facebook that make it is easier than ever to join a group or to find people to connect with. However, as a whole, this overwhelming exposure exceeds our emotional ability to manage the difference we are encountering. This can make the technology driven, global world a very scary place indeed.
