UPDATED Oct. 20: The following letter by David Bean of Arlington is republished with the author's permission. It appeared in the Monday, Oct. 18, Boston Globe here >>

letters

 Smartphones are not just communication devices. They are the necessary link between a person and “the hive.” Most of us have ourselves experienced impulsive, compulsive, and obsessive thinking. Imagine that going on in your child’s developing brain.

The geniuses of social media, people like Mark Zuckerberg, are working full time to suck everyone in to an existence that involves the substitution of a virtual-reality world, the “metaverse,” for the real world — a VR world with nonstop commercialism, nonstop data gathering, and nonstop insanity.

Why go outdoors? Why go to a show? Why go on a date? Why do any “real” thing when you can have the same experience on the Internet, except without the unpleasantness of dirt, human interaction, or even bothering to get dressed?

Parents, take away your kids’ smartphones before it’s too late.

This letter was republished Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, and updated to add comments.

Editor's note: The Globe headline over this letter could not be published, because the software on which this opinion platform runs, EasyBlog, says it includes an objectionable word. I do not think it does, but I can't change this internal software issue. In the light of this letter, that is ironic, no? I will let readers figure out what the offending word is.

Your comments

Lost cause: More than a hint

Richard L. Schmeidler of Arlington wrote to YourArlington's editor privately, and has agreed to have his comments added here:

"Thank you for republishing Mr. Bean's letter to the Globe. I am afraid that his is a lost cause. When writing was invented, people probably complained that the children would no longer memorize important texts any more.

"You wrote: 'Editor's note: The Globe headline over this letter could not be published, because the software on which this opinion platform runs, EasyBlog, says it includes objectionable word. I do not think it does, but I can't change this internal software issue. In the light of this letter, that is ironic, no? I will let readers figure out what the offending word is.'

"The custom, in the distant past and even today, has been to report offending words -- originally mostly names, I think -- by omitting letters (usually vowels).

"Some years ago, I stopped subscribing to the Gl-b. So I don't know what their headline said.

"I give up on your riddle since I can no longer guess how the Gl-b's current editors think (to give them the benefit of the doubt). Can you give me a hint?"

Editor: The word that offended the EasyBlog software is "suck." But the Globe headline over Bean's letter uses it in an unobjectionable context: "Tech whizzes have sucked us into a virtual world." 

'The Machine Stops'

The following comments have been added with the author's permission:

Mark P. Fishman (mfishman at alum.mit.edu) wrote to the Arlington email list Oct. 18:

"[P]erhaps relevant to that letter, in a more literary and predictive manner, is the 113-year-old story by E.M. Forster, called The Machine Stops. Among other places and formats, it is available as a PDF from the University of California at Davis. web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/the%20machine%20stops.pdf."