Forty three years this week Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I remember driving with my folks to someone’s house to watch it. It was AN EVENT. The living was packed with adults all speculating about whether or not they would find aliens up there (one dad hoped they’d find naked women). Just about all of them had a highball glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Lawn chairs had been brought inside to accommodate the crowd, laughter and chatter gave way to silence as they watched the big moment. More memorable for me that night was something the kids at the host house had that I had never seen before and that was way cooler than dudes on the moon...SPIROGRAPH.
I used to work with two guys who were convinced the lunar landing had been an elaborate ruse created on a Hollywood stage to dupe the world. They argued with people about it all the time and sure seemed convinced and passionate about their take on things. At the time it was near to impossible to find anything about a possible conspiracy. All we had at home were encylcopedias that, under "Space", said: "Blah blah blah space travel...rocket ships...one day man MAY even walk on the moon."
I got to thinking about those guys this week and decided to Google “did man land on the moon”. The search resulted in millions of links to all kinds of sites, one of which said that Stanley Kubrick was the film genius behind the scam. Some of the sites are cheesy but some are quite professional looking and as I surfed around their “evidence” I realized that I could be convinced that it had been a scam...if I didn’t already know better...or did I?
I went to the NASA site and some myth debunkers sites and my faith was soon restored, man had most certainly landed on the moon, or had he?
I had the same reaction to all the 9/11 conspiracy theory stuff I watched and read. One minute I knew the obvious horrible truth the next I was pretty much convinced the U.S attacked its own innocent citizens.
Misinformation moves at the speed of thought now. Two years ago a tweeter said Gordon Lightfoot had died and that made it into the national papers without anyone fact-checking. Gordon had to phone around to say he was alive, despite news to the contrary. If the Big Media Gods can be duped than how are we supposed to be able discern fact from fiction?
Kids need to be taught early on to question what they hear and read and see as a matter of habit. It needs to be a honed skill and if it makes them cynical and sceptical then that's the price they'll have to pay not to have the wool pulled over their eyes.
And further to that, what about explaining to kids how their internet behaviour will impact their grown up life? Employers Google and Facebook creep perspective employees before they even look at the written resume.
People call in to work sick then Tweet pictures of themselves at the baseball game. Fired. One woman was collecting workman's comp when she posted pictures of herself on Facebook book on the beach. Fired.
Then there are the riots. Light fire to a police car, grin for the iPhone camera and there goes your future. Flashing your boobs or shoving a camera down your pants and sending the photos to friends, all bad decisions. Just ask any congressman.
If there had been instant evidence of MY behaviour through the 80’s and 90’s - not just word of mouth which I could indignantly deny - I would never have met a nice fella and had kids. And if by some happy chance I did, how would I be able to discipline my kids when they could easily pull up evidence to show I did not practice what I preached?
We have started the conversation in our house about internet follies. I have found some examples that are good for their age and some that are tactical scare moves - I have shown my 9 year daughter a clip of a 14 year old girl crying and blubbering her regret at having taken pictures of her naked self for her boyfriend only to arrive at school the next day and find out he had forwarded to everyone. Everyone.
There have to be solid lessons for the kids, taught at school and ongoing, not just a two hour info session. It has to start early and stay current and be proactive with instructors going on line with tweens and teens to help them create and understand their profiles and web presence before it is all up there forever.
YouTube has taken a big step in the right direction with their new cirriculum and if your school isn’t teaching it you need to ask why.
It's called Understanding YouTube and Digital Citizenship and it has been developed for teachers to use in the classroom. Here are some of the topics covered:
Detecting Lies
Safety Mode
Online Reputation and Cyberbullying
Reporting content
Privacy
Head to their site and sign up for a subscription of the videos, great stuff. Crucial.
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