Palmer Trinity School

m E S S A g E F R O m T H E E D I T O R 5 S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 When I was growing up, I was taught to answer the phone and say, "Gottlieb residence, Suzanne speaking." In retrospect, that seems as quaint as the rotary dial and the paper pad we kept next to the phone for messages. Today, it's unusual when you don't reach someone immediately. It would also be unusual to answer someone else's phone. ese unwritten rules about the changing nature of communication have much to do with social media. Social media represents two things we hold dear as a society: technology and connection. e fact that they seem like incongruent things— most people equate technology with sleek, cold design, not bonding with others—makes social media all the more interesting for millions of people online. Part of that appeal is creating a brand for who we are. It allows us to carefully curate a vision that we want to share. To understand the pros and cons of social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—would almost require us all to be able to see what was going on in each other's brains. Why do we want or need to present ourselves a certain way? Don't we already do that with the way we dress and speak and move through the world? Palmer Trinity uses social media to set apart our brand and connect our school to the larger world. As of this printing, Palmer Trinity has 2,376 likes on Facebook, 852 followers on Twitter, and 600 followers on Instagram. Like our student body and families, these numbers represent our community, too. ese followers are invested in PTS. Our brand—top academics, spirit-instilled learning, athletic excellence, and global citizenship—ripples farther afield than what was possible in any previous generation. In a 1956 New York Times article called, "Tomorrow: A Living Dream," architects and designers described their vision for homes in the future: " By 1980, we can expect that the combination of research and electronic applications will have wrought considerable change in our homes and pattern of modern life... it is possible that the home of the future might contain a small electronic computer to remove the ' drudgery' of budgeting the family finances, paying bills, even figuring income taxes." Imagine how mind-blown that panel of experts would be with today's "living dream." We can speak to anyone, anywhere, at any time. We can forge deep connections with people online that we may never meet in real life. We can research anything from the comfort of our homes. And, yes, we can figure out our income taxes. We can even follow news about our children's school! (In case the mention above didn't entice you, if you're not following PTS on social media, you really should). What about the darker side of social media? Just like I answered the family phone, so did my parents, which meant they had a keen sense of who I was talking to. I was left to speak privately, but they always had a sense of what was going on. e idea of privacy was fundamentally different than it is in today's online world. A new book, American Girls by Nancy Jo Sales, reveals details about the private lives of teenagers online. (Mainly, that there is no privacy.) She offered some sobering statistics about teenage girls who are asked for inappropriate images of themselves by fellow students and comply for fear of bullied retribution. For teenagers, social media hits precisely at the age when there is a lack of understanding about the nature of consequences. Mistakes can live on in perpetuity. What a painful way for some teenagers to learn that particular lesson. Besides the loss of privacy, all of our typing and texting has resulted in the lost art of handwriting. e act of holding a pen or pencil and writing our thoughts down on paper is linked to a certain part of learning ability. e processing time from pen to paper is different than keypad to screen—it also practices hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. I know—I sound like a dinosaur. Still, I think it's important to recognize that the same things we love about social media—the connection with people we would otherwise not meet, the ability to share one's own life—could also be its potential downfall. If we don't question it, why should our kids? S U z A N N E g O T T L I E B C A L L E JA a s s o c i at e H e a d o f s c H o o l f o r c o m m u n i c at i o n s a n d s t r at e G i c Pa r t n e r s H i P s

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