Unintended Consequences – Time for a paradigm shift

On 2 November, I gave a talk, “Unintended Consequences” at Gnomedex.  I spoke to the need to recognize that “always-on” isn’t necessarily always good.  I went on to describe the train-wrecks which occur when technology which is created for good, is used in a manner, unintended.  I then shared the stories of 36 young people who we lost in 2010 due to being overwhelmed, both online and off.  I spoke of these previously in my piece, Bullying: the 34 we lost in 2010 to Bullycide, a piece I wrote hoping that the call to action would be heard.  But here we are in 2011 and we continue to lose too many youth.  I truly believe it time for a paradigm shift.  We need to teach *pro-social* skills starting at pre-school and continuing through their senior year of high school.  Not only will our youth be enabled to co-exist in a collaborative way, they will be productive students, which means we’ll have productive citizens in the years ahead.

I invite you to take 30 mins and listen to my talk.  Then, please come back and share with me your thoughts on how we can raise $6 per child to get a program such as Social Smarts into our schools and make that paradigm shift.