James O'Brien finds a caller that is "close to profound"
17 January 2020, 13:11 | Updated: 17 January 2020, 13:13
James O'Brien said this caller's insight was "close to profound" about social media.
Ryan in Leicester has become a new dad and said he will educate his child about the dangers of social media and monitor his accessibility of the web.
"You'd never send your kid out on a bike without giving them stabilisers, you'd never throw them into a pool without armbands on first, and I don't think the use of social media is any different," he said, "I think when they first start becoming exposed to it that you monitor it and you do that for a few years until you feel that they're at a mature level."
James appreciated this comment, "Your understanding of social media is as complete as your understanding of social media. Whereas for people of my age and older, it's still very much a learning curve...when we were children it did not exist.
"I think that was close to profound, that insight," he continued, "you know what dangers they face whereas I possibly didn't."
James jokingly asked Ryan how he'd prevent his children from wandering into the dark web on their virtual headsets or contact lenses filled with data in a futuristic Britain.
"This is one of the problems of having a 'commontariat' that is of a very similar age, background, ethnicity, sexuality and often gender, is that the whole world is sometimes framed as how it looks through the lens of those experiences.
"You need someone who's only just become a dad to tell you what social media means to him to have an idea of what the relationship between social media, parenting and the child is going to be in the future."
