Looking back now, I realise how fortunate I was having never had to navigate my way through the sh*t storm that was COVID during my A-levels. Teaching our children through the pandemic gave my wife and I a glimpse into the stress of online learning. Above all, it became apparent how important it is for us all to interact socially in a physical setting. The main reason I chose UEA, a brick university over an online one. After COVID our children found it difficult to communicate and interact face to face with people. They carried an anxiety which can be blamed on relying on technology. Without sounding patronising, I sympathise with my current peers and all that they have endured in their learning experience. I understand everyone is different and some people like their space, but I all too often see a fellow student walking or eating on their own in the square and I sometimes want to go up and see if they’re alright. Maybe it’s the dad in me but I don’t anyone to feel left out and anxious. I had the luxury of a pandemic free education, which does make me guilty too.  

Another thing I did not have to contend with in 2004 and that is mobile phones and the internet. Both were new back then and no one would have dreamed of accessing the internet on their phones. We had the luxury of the ringing sound of dial up internet on a home computer. Nowadays, we seem to rely too heavily on our phones, they are there for us in an awkward situations/silence or when we feel bored. I wasn’t easy to reach in 2004 and do you know what? It was great. I didn’t have the benefit of looking something up I didn’t know or thought I needed to know. No social media to see what people or family members I don’t particularly like are up to. I now look at my phone as a way of conformism, using us a target, a statistic. It is also there to numb and occupy us with quite frankly, crap. AI is beginning to think for us creatively. It’s insane.  

What can we do? Turn your notifications off, don’t have it near you before sleep and resist the urge to keep checking it. Go for a walk without your phone, you don’t need it. We didn’t have access to a wealth of ‘information’ on the go in 2004 and everything was fine. We do need to use our phones to a certain extent but don’t let them rule you. On the bus journey from the park and ride I look around and everyone’s face down, looking at their phones. Except one guy wearing a blue shirt. Every week I see him, and he is looking out of the window, newspaper under his arm. I thought how refreshing, the mans a pioneer! Be like blue shirt guy. Don’t conform and look up, talk to each other. There’s a whole world out there to feel and experience and it can’t be done on a phone. To quote Percy Shelley, ‘Ye are many, they are few’. Stick it to them and question everything.