My wife and I recently spent a few days on vacation at a South Carolina beach. We took time to stroll on the sand, take naps, kick back, and read. However, in the last-minute rush to pack for our trip, I managed to leave my Kindle at home. Thus, I began the mental journey that resulted in this article.
My Kindle has been one of the nicest gifts my younger daughter has ever given me. These days, I do most of my leisure reading on that device. Although my cell phone rides around on my belt almost all the time, I have never been comfortable trying to read novels on its small screen. So, while on vacation, I went looking for a local bookstore.
First, I tried the huge grocery store and pharmacy where we shopped for vacation meals. Though they had a newsstand, they did not carry books. Their newsstand attendant did not know of any local bookstores. He suggested that I try the internet on my cell phone, which I did. I immediately encountered a blizzard of advertisements that diverted me to online sources, primarily Amazon. The closest physical bookstore the device came up with was over 150 miles away. I almost certainly missed local stores among the blizzard of ads, but the experience was still unsettling.
However, when I walked out of the grocery store, I looked around the parking lot, and what do you know! Although the newsstand guy did not remember it, a small book shop greeted my searching eye just a few stores away. I entered the shop to encounter the local smell of heaven: used books. Half an hour later, I emerged with three classic collections of science fiction short stories.
Even in these finds, however, there were changes from my youth. Gone from the shop were the works of Heinlein, Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke in technical science fiction, replaced by Stephen King and darker, dystopian fantasies. According to the shop owner, readers these days relate to fantasy much more than to speculative science. The shop has to carry things that are sold. As far as I am concerned (I am age 81), that is the kids’ loss, and maybe ours also, as their parents and grandparents.
The digital shift in education and youth
Coincidentally, as I drove back to our beach cottage from the shop, I listened to a program on the local Public Broadcasting System station about the impact of individual student computers on high school education. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, some educators were proposing that student computers were the wave of the future and might even replace schools and teachers. Why go to the bother of studying physical books when you can look up anything you want to know on your phone?
It has since become apparent that such a future can be a decidedly mixed blessing. Adolescents and pre-adolescent children lack both the judgment and the perspective to decide for themselves what they “need” to know or how much time they should spend online. Along with massive amounts of information have come cyber-bullying, sexual predators, deep-fake artificial intelligence-generated videos, and text disinformation.
I see these distortions every day on my Facebook feed. Political postings regularly make false claims that even a cursory fact check that any user can perform in a few moments at a search engine will verify as false. However, few users take the trouble to do fact checks. We also see alarmingly convincing videos of gorillas picking up and cradling children who have fallen into a zoo enclosure, or wolves that lead strangers to a trapped or injured cub. These animal behaviors simply do not happen in real life, and if you attempt to approach a wild animal, you could get badly bitten.
We are also coming to understand that social media is actively harmful to both youth and supposedly mature adults and was designed to produce click-through behaviors that are similar to drug addiction. Serious harms linked to heavy social media exposure include:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Sleep disruption
- Body-image problems
- Disordered eating
- Suicidal ideation
The risk is especially concerning in adolescence because this is a sensitive period for brain development, social comparison, and emotional regulation.
The broader vulnerabilities of a digital world
Several countries (Australia, France, Denmark, Brazil, and others) have already enacted laws requiring identity and age verification and placing age limits on access, beginning this year or next. Many other nations are actively considering such measures, over the loud opposition of social media companies and of youth whom they have already made dependent. Such forces are not trivial. The asset value of Meta (which owns Facebook) is about $1.7 trillion. Big money speaks with a loud voice.
Many books have been written over the years about the loss of intellectual nuance and the “dumbing down” of America. Fewer authors have explored another and less known vulnerability of our present knowledge systems. A single thermonuclear weapon designed to generate a high-intensity electromagnetic pulse and detonated at high altitude over the U.S. can now instantaneously damage or disable much of our electronic infrastructure and power network. Any nation with access to intercontinental missiles and nuclear weapons technology could in theory produce and use such weapons.
So, what would you do if your smart phone, your internet-connected computer, your car, your local radio and television, your lights, and refrigerator no longer work? Part of the answer to these questions is likely to come from physical books in your home or a local library. I hope you have not thrown them out.
Richard A. Lawhern is a nationally recognized health care educator and patient advocate who has spent nearly three decades researching pain management and addiction policy. His extensive body of work, including over 300 published papers and interviews, reflects a deep critique of U.S. health care agencies and their approaches to chronic pain treatment. Now retired from formal academic and hospital affiliations, Richard continues to engage with professional and public audiences through platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and his contributions to KevinMD. His advocacy extends to online communities like Protect People in Pain, where he works to elevate the voices of patients navigating restrictive opioid policies. Among his many publications is a guideline on opioid use for chronic non-cancer pain, reflecting his commitment to evidence-based reform in pain medicine.
