What Will You Tell The Children?

What Will You Tell The Children?

When the risks from today’s use of wireless technologies are fully accepted, what will you tell the children?

Of all the possible justifications - “They said it was safe, nobody knew, everyone was using mobiles, smart-phones and Wi-Fi…” and on and on. Perhaps the one thing that embraces all these vain excuses is:

“We didn’t think…”

We didn’t think holding a microwave transmitter next to our brains or theirs would be hazardous; we didn’t think the effects would be cumulative or carry over to future generations; we didn’t think each device on its own would be dangerous; we didn’t think the powers-that-be would allow it and we didn’t think it would affect us or anyone close to us. We trusted and we believed it was all safe, however much we were exposed. We thought we could all talk and text, speak and e-mail forever, surf the Internet and stream audio and video wirelessly to our heart’s content and nothing bad would happen, ever. In short, we thought whatever the potential risks,

"We would get away with it."

We never knew that smart-meters were wireless or that our home, school and office alarm systems were constantly filling our space with microwave radiation. We did not understand that cordless phones use always-on pulsed digital wireless, and the Wi-Fi router, and the laptop, and the tablet, and the baby monitor, and the security cameras, and the Bluetooth in the car and, the microwave oven, and....

We let our children bully us into giving them their first mobile phone. We thought we’d lose them if we didn’t comply with the emerging trend. We found it hard to believe that wearing the wrong brands or a lack of wireless connectivity would cause our children to be rejected by their peers. We let them have a wireless games console and we thought a wireless keyboard and mouse couldn’t possibly hurt them, us or our pets. As for our neighbours, we never really liked them anyway.

So now our children blame us. They blame us as old fuddy-duddies who failed to equip them to live and function in the modern world. They blame us for denying them always-on wireless connectivity soon enough. They blame us for not providing them with instant access to e-mail, Wikipedia, snap-chat, twitter, Facebook and the latest tech, and ultimately they may well blame us for not protecting them from the addiction that is even today taking them from us. In any event, we the grown-ups should have known better and are by default guilty. No wonder today’s teenagers especially seem to harbour so much resentment for the state of the world they find themselves in.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t think so. The next generation will have to live with their naiveté and the consequences of our actions and inaction. It probably wasn’t your fault that the world you lived in and knew turned against you and stole your children - but you may still carry the guilt. 

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