January 17th 2021
The storming of Congress in Washington DC was an extraordinary, worrying and surreal event and it beggared belief that such an incident could take place at all, let alone in plain sight with the US President apparently complicit. It raises so many fundamental questions about democracy, the role of the President and the part played in our society by big tech.
It is important that your boys are aware of what happened in the US and of its implications, as it is they who will be the guardians of our democracy in the next generation. My Friday assembly in the first week of term focussed on Trump as an example of how not to behave and conduct yourself, essentially casting him as a negative role model.
In my Year 8 History lessons we have discussed more specific aspects of the scandal, focussing on the role played by social media. In particular, we talked about Twitter’s subsequent decision to ban Trump from its platform, which on the face of it, the boys thought was a sensible, sound and reasonable action by the tech giant. I don’t necessarily disagree with them, but I was keen that the boys explored the issue in more depth, and from this further analysis they could see that various complicated issues were at play. For example, how is big tech/social media regulated, and is it safe for a democracy that it effectively regulates itself? What are the difficulties for governments and society regulating Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc? Is it right that Twitter etc. decides who can use its site?
In a world where a small number of large tech companies are the source of much of the information that both we and children receive, developing your sons’ critical thinking and encouraging them to question what is presented to them is more important than ever. This is summed up neatly by the Reverend Sam Wells in the attached short audio piece broadcast on Radio 4 on 12th January, which we listened to in class.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p093s9kc
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