I believe it’s a fair statement that responsibly managing personal screen time is now a skill that every human being will eventually need to develop. There are now no children in schools whose parents were not profoundly affected by a culture steeped in screen time. We have come to believe that having a smartphone is not a luxury, it’s considered a need, even a “right” by many. The question that the vast majority of parents are seeking to answer is not “should” their kids get a phone, it’s “when.” No one may be saying it out loud, but what many are thinking is that the human experience in and of itself, without a personal device with access to the internet in your hand, is lacking. The pervasive integration, ease of access, and exciting technological advances will only increase with time.

So what do we do, if indeed we as a human race have turned this corner, and personal internet devices are considered so essential to living? If the world we live in is a world where constant personal access to the internet is not going away, how do we move forward in a healthy way? After all, not all of this is necessarily bad. Advances in technology can revolutionize education, productivity, and human connectedness. We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on how it could go wrong. But how might it go right?

Every child born since, let’s just say 2012, will have grown up with intuitive technology at their fingertips. While adults are spending time worrying about how children can be kept from using technology to cheat, children are looking at technology as a means to do more. Am I opposed to students using AI to write their papers for them? Of course. Do I think the next generation of an innovative workforce will necessarily need to utilize AI to be successful? Definitely. We cannot throw out the baby ChatGPT with the bathwater.

Naturally, we want to develop our own brains’ critical thinking skills, and ability to be creative, and communicate effectively, not yielding these tasks to technology in a way that makes us dependent. The task is to master the balance of sharpening our minds while utilizing technology’s advances in these areas to do more good. Our natural inclinations are to either fear technology or throw ourselves into it with reckless abandon. The sweet spot we must find will be somewhere in the middle.

Apps like TikTok, Instagram and others show us how skilled, creative, and entertaining each other can be. Putting aside the addictive nature of the algorithm that drives how we scroll, a large part of why these platforms are so addictive is the abundance of creative and engaging material human beings are creating. If I can learn to control myself, there is so much to learn, be inspired by, and appreciate about the content people I follow produce. My task is to balance my consumption of what other people create and prioritize my own human responsibility to be productive in a meaningful way. That balance can and will be extremely fulfilling.

More and more adults and kids are being diagnosed with ADHD. Often this involves a short attention span, hyperactivity, or a tendency towards what can be perceived as disorganization. The fact is that a handheld supercomputer has tons of advantages that can revolutionize these struggles. It’s true that some smartphone use aggravates and emphasizes ADHD struggles, but there are also creative apps for organization, intentional movement, bitesize learning, and reminders.

In an age where frustration over world events and geopolitics affects our lives in ways we cannot control, the internet gives people a voice. Naturally, this can have an ugly side. My early experiences on Facebook were marred by too many times that I waded into someone else’s hot take and ended up in an argument in the comments. But I’ve learned and grown in self-control. The ability to be heard, valued, and understood by other humans will go a long way toward creating peace and increasing understanding if we are willing to give one another a chance. A lone individual victim on the ground at the scene of some tragic event was once subject to the will of corporate media to tell their story. This is no longer true. When real people can tell their own stories, humanity wins.

I encourage you to spend a few minutes researching the educational uses of virtual reality in classrooms, hospitals, and other vital arenas. The possibilities seem limitless. The ways our children will learn how to be doctors and mechanics will make the days when we looked at pictures in books seem like the stone ages. Today’s diseases may have cures that will be discovered tomorrow by someone wearing a virtual reality headset.

Bullying, vanity, and general unkindness have been a problem in schools since there were schools. These are human challenges, but social media has given them a new and powerful platform. We need common sense guardrails. Age restrictions on social apps need to be more stringent. Safer alternatives for younger kids need to be more prevalent. Real consequences for violations of community guidelines need to be drafted and enforced. The good in humanity has always risen to the top when advances created new challenges. Social media and young people are a primary arena where the good in humanity needs to clearly prevail, and I believe it will.

Finally, as we approach the end of the school year we are preparing our kids for standardized testing. As I have been teaching lessons about testing skills, I have heard a surprising number of kids report an unexpected benefit they receive from testing days. The quiet. In every class I teach, at least one child brings up how nice the quiet is during testing. Our children crave peace. While technology has added countless voices and sounds into their worlds, it has also provided them with a very satisfying opportunity. Laying down a phone to sit in silence and enjoy a sunny day is a power move. It reminds us that technology exists to serve our purposes, not to be our master. The choice to lay it down consistently and embrace the silence and solitude is a uniquely human value. It is empowering. With every inch of technology becoming more integrated into our daily experiences, it becomes more important to empower and emphasize the uniquely good virtues that make us human.