Leaning in when screens take over

By CHRISTIAN McNEILLY
Guest Columnist

As a school administrator and parent, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to best shape children for the world they are growing up in so that they can go on to shape the world into what we hope it can be.

Increasingly, that world is shaped by (and viewed through) their screens.

Our students’ lives are complicated by the demands of ubiquitous internet, social media, and devices that are almost always just an arm’s reach away.

You don’t need statistics. You know the look: groups of teens sitting together, silently, no one talking or even looking at one another. Head down, face aglow, fingers swiping. Conflicts, once resolved in-person, are pursued relentlessly online, with devastating real-world impact. Essential human interactions, like writing, reading, and comprehending, aren’t even generated by humans anymore. They’re synthesized by AI.

What’s more, the pace of technological change is accelerating. Fast.

Major technological developments of the past two decades are changing the way all of us, especially our students, connect with each other, learn new concepts, and relate to the world. If it sounds existential, it is. Technology has reshaped childhood and all its implications for adulthood.

It presents sobering questions about raising and educating flourishing kids right now. The pace of change means that instilling the tested, foundational values that many of us grew up with requires urgent and purposeful rethinking of our approach.

Jonathan Haidt’s highly influential work, The Anxious Generation, offers valuable insights into these challenges. While some of his positions contradict the Biblical worldview we hold at Legacy Christian School, his research illuminates the emotional, mental, and social impacts that technological change and social media saturation, along with a decline in real-world experiences needed to form healthy relationships with others and the world around us, are having on young people.

Haidt offers hope by highlighting urgent recommendations for shifting our approach to children:

• Restricting and restructuring technology engagement
• Creating more robust, purposeful, real-world experiences
• Investing in the value of spiritual community and engagement

To be sure, this doesn’t always mean less technology. Our students need to be as equipped as ever for a life based on technology. But therein lies the answer. Our job is to lean in. It’s to train, equip, educate – to prepare them – not simply leave them to be tutored in life by the internet.

We must be committed, together, to defining and purposefully building up the skills – both digital and real-world – as well as the spiritual truths that our children need in order to thrive as they become independent and responsible.

At Legacy Christian School, we’ve reframed our mission statement to directly address this reality: preparing students spiritually and skillfully for life ahead. For us, that means prioritizing:

• The Bible and its instruction, equipping students to thrive spiritually in relationship with Christ
• Real-life skills that go beyond content knowledge, equipping students to interact with knowledge and with others wisely in order to thrive personally, interpersonally, and professionally.

What our children do not need right now is hyper-critical adults condemning them for being kids in a digitally overwhelming world. What they need is savvy, proactive leadership from parents and educators – training them by curating protection and purpose in digital spaces (yes – even modeling managing our own digital engagement!), and immersing them in more real-world experiences that develop the myriad skills needed to navigate life beyond the screen.

There is hope. We do not have to sit by and watch helplessly as our kids grow up shaped by a confusing and changing digital world. Together, we get to shape these shapers of the future.

Christian McNeilly is a pastor, school administrator, and strategy coach. He has a Masters in Leadership from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has worked extensively in both ministry and education to help advance strategic initiatives through numerous organizations on multiple continents. He and his family currently reside in Indianapolis.

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About Legacy Christian School
For 30 years, Legacy Christian School has provided Christ-centered education in the heart of Hamilton County. We believe that it is only through the transforming power of Christ working in and through us that we can become living examples to a world in need of hope. Through our competitive academic programs and faithfulness to Biblical teaching, our students are building a foundation for a lifetime. Learn more at LegacyChristianSchools.org.