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Letter: For real life, look away from your screens

Published 14 May 2025

From Richard Bradford, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK

The younger generation may or may not be as intelligent as their elders, but their lives are markedly different. Entwined with digital devices, can they fully appreciate the real world? If not, how will they be able to cope with the realities and uncertainties of life?

I take pains to remind my students in their early 20s that the real world isn’t on a screen, but “out there”, where they feel hot and cold and hungry, and may fall in love. It is also the world where they will look for work. But their attention lasts for about 5 seconds before their eyes start twitching and they look back at a screen(19 April, p 19).

Issue no. 3543 published 17 May 2025

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