If you are a parent in modern day Australia, then this is most likely what you are. We are talking about our own status as digital immigrants in a land of digital natives.
Social and emotional intelligence are not only valuable attributes in a leader; they are critical elements of a thriving community or society. Without an element of emotional investment in the situations of others, without a degree of empathy and altruism applied to our daily lives, society as a whole would begin to disintegrate.
In 2016 the ABC reported on the desperately tragic statistic that suicide rates among 15 to 24-year-olds were at their highest level in ten years. Research from 2012 found that many of these suicides were a direct result of cyberbullying, with a shocking 750 young Australians aged between 13 and 17 committing suicide as a result of threats or campaigns of abuse experienced online. With the growing prevalence of social media in the lives of our younger generation, this problem is not going away.
In the modern landscape, bullying has been transformed. To borrow a phrase from global political discourse, 'the threat has evolved'. The number of young people who describe the internet as 'very important' to their daily lives has doubled since 2009. This drive towards connectivity has provided bullies with unprecedented access to their potential victims, making it far more difficult to combat the often catastrophic effects of bullying.
Dreams are powerful things, and still represent something of an enigma for the scientific community. At night time, as we sleep and recharge our batteries, our minds delve into a rich treasure trove of memory and knowledge, forging connections between these often unexplored or forgotten pockets of data, and presenting us with a myriad of images and experiences.