Spooky stats

Something scary for Halloween...

Now look, I know we are five-ish days out from an election that already has many people on edge. If this newsletter is not what you need today, please feel free to skip right on by.

…but maybe, when you’re feeling sturdier, circle back around. Because although it is no one’s first choice to marinate in the dark side of the internet or the harms of social media for kids and teens (and certainly not mine), I think we ignore it at our — and their — peril.

I like the sunny side. Most of the time, I prefer to focus on the positive benefits of a low-screen life, not the dangers of a screen-saturated one: the cozy glow of nighttime read-alouds, the chatty fun of navigating grocery aisles with a tiny companion, the chaotic memories of screen-free road trips. I prefer thinking about how to create a home that makes people feel safe and known and how to grow offline community that nourishes. For me, these good things are usually more than enough motivation to keep choosing the low-screen path.

But sometimes it’s important to think about the flip side, too: to remember — just for a bit — the darkness and depravity that can come with life on the internet. Knowing the facts can keep us appropriately cautious: watchful and slow to give new freedoms in the online world even as we look to let out the rope in the real world (to paraphrase Jonathan Haidt).