What Jane Addams Taught Me About Technology Panic

As a parent, I sometimes wonder whether my concerns about technology’s effects on our kids are simply following the same pattern that’s repeated across generations. A new technology emerges, parents panic, and then everyone moves on once that technology fully saturates the culture. 

I was reminded of this issue after stumbling across a book a few weeks ago. “The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets” by Jane Addams sparked my interest because I wondered what Addams thought of the forces corrupting kids in her day, the early 1900s, and how her concerns compared to my own today. 

Some of the things that worried her seem innocent by today’s standards. At the same time, there are parallels between some of the vices of youth more than 100 years ago and the vices of today. Some of the similarities include Addams’ observations of an escapist culture. Many kids back then were into visiting what she calls “five-cent theaters,” or what became known as nickelodeons. 

These nickelodeons were the precursors to our modern movie theaters and were often housed in storefronts. Some kids became fixated on these establishments. Addams laments about a group of girls who refused to spend a day in the countryside because “they found it impossible to tear themselves away not only from the excitements of the theater itself but from the gaiety of the crowd of young men and girls invariably gathered outside discussing the sensational posters.” 

Children stealing from parents to attend … plays?

Addams also points out the problem of plays, live theater, and dance halls. She frowns on dance halls and, during one visit to one of these places, she asks a teenager why he comes. He replies that it’s the only place he knows to meet a “nice girl.” “I’m awfully lonesome since I came to Chicago,” he says.  

Now, I don’t know exactly what took place at these dance halls during the early 1900s, but I think a lot of parents today would be happy to have their teenager attend a dance, rather than sit in their room glued to a screen on a Saturday night. 

Addams also writes about a boy who stole money from his mother so he could attend a Saturday evening play. “However, the Saturday performance, ‘starting him off like,’ he always went twice again on Sunday, procuring the money in all sorts of illicit ways,” Addams explains. 

Children still steal from their parents today. But can you imagine a child stealing for the sake of attending a play? Maybe somewhere there’s a child obsessed with live theater, but most parents will probably tell you the big obsession at their home is video games or social media.

Nickelodeons: the TikTok of 1909

For Addams, her biggest concern was the new nickelodeons. By today’s standards, nickelodeons were like TikTok, while live theater was more like television. Essentially, nickelodeons offered the cheapest thrills, probably demanding shorter attention spans than other forms of entertainment.

Addams laments against nickelodeons in a way similar to how many of us today complain about social media. Five-cent theaters instilled in the youth a “primitive code of morality,” Addams asserts. That sounds a lot like what a lot of us say about social media today.

Addams’ commentary raises the question: Should we simply accept that older generations will view new technologies as a corrupting force on the youth? Will the passage of time inevitably trivialize those concerns? Some people, after all, complained that telephones would lead to people writing fewer letters, which of course it did, but I don’t think anyone cares today. We’ve moved on to worry about other things, such as social media causing teens to feel isolated and lonely. 

What might the next technology panic look like?

For a thought experiment, consider how technology might evolve to make social media seem preferable, even healthy. Perhaps the youth of tomorrow will spend their time immersed in an AI-generated alternative reality, like what the author of the “Nirvana Effect” envisions. “Ah. I remember when kids used to talk to other kids over the internet. They had their own Instagram and TikTok accounts. Remember when they made their own videos and uploaded them? Now all they do is live in that AI fantasy world. Sad.” 

As disturbing as future scenarios may be, I do think “this time is different” applies to our present moment because of how the worst forms of digital technology are uniquely designed to manipulate users. Computer power and coding are advancing so quickly that, biologically speaking, we can’t keep up. Digital technology can morph to maximize the pleasure and entertainment of its users. Entertainment technology of yesterday was “all or nothing.” You either liked what it had to offer or didn’t, but it couldn’t adjust itself (like with an algorithm) to figure out how to keep you from walking away.

Technology’s fast-moving evolution justifies strict parental limits

That’s why, when it comes to youth, I feel parents should strictly limit access to these new digital technologies. Today’s digital tech can manipulate children in ways that children—and many adults, frankly—don’t understand. Bans on social media seek to mitigate this risk, while technology companies continue to deny any dangers exist.  

It’s true that many of us will move on from the current panic around social media and, now, AI. But that doesn’t mean we as parents ought to simply give up and say: “Well, it can’t be stopped. This tech will inevitably consume us all, so I’m just going to give it to my kid.” We as parents can pump the brakes, in the hopes of steering clear of as many of the societal ills that digital technologies have fostered. 

Interestingly, Addams recommends public recreation as one of the alternatives to the nickelodeons and other forms of debauchery of the day. She talks about making sports and parks readily accessible for the youth. She’s not completely opposed to dancing, either, but favors chaperoned folk dances for girls and boys to attend. She also writes about this issue at a time when many city kids worked in factories after finishing school. Boring and meaningless factory work can cause kids to rebel and make unwise choices, Addams writes. 

The cure today is similar to what Addams called for

The cure she prescribed is oddly similar to what we as parents might describe as the cure to digital technologies: more meaningful interactions with each other and more meaningful work. When life becomes highly digitalized, it starts to lose meaning and purpose, in the same way that it did for kids relegated to working in factories. Youth today suffers a monotony not completely unlike what the youth suffered in the early 1900s. Only instead of feeling trapped by a future of making widgets or garments, many kids today feel trapped by online culture. Kids today seek meaning and higher purpose but aren’t sure where to look or what to look for.

To a great extent, many parents are similarly trapped by their devices. They’re not in a position to show their children another way. Fortunately, the solutions are within easy reach. You might be surprised how imaginative and resourceful kids can be without a device in hand. They can figure out other things to do in their free time. Giving your child unstructured play time can help them develop their own imaginations without you as a parent having to do much of anything.

Also, when parents spend time with their children, doing anything from playing catch to playing a board game, they counteract the effects of screen time. Nothing that Addams suggests as a “cure” is remarkable, and neither are the “cures” to what ails many children today. It takes mainly some effort on the part of parents, along with a community committed to guiding kids in the right direction.