Last weekend our family went for its annual Thanksgiving Walk, a two-hour hike through Awenda Provincial Park above Georgian Bay. Behind me were my stepson and his 11-year-old daughter. Their conversation twisted and turned through as many subjects as they did navigating the fallen trees and winding forest paths. I was listening idly to their back-and-forth when I heard: “But when can I have a phone?”
I won’t say the skies clouded, but the mood changed at this, the most insistent question of our age. Because asking mom and dad when you can have your first phone has turned into asking them when you can have your first shot of heroin.
Clearly, this was not the first time she’d asked, and I was impressed by her father’s patience as he calmly listed all the reasons an 11-year-old shouldn’t have a mobile phone. “But Mary has one, and she’s 12!”
“I know. But Mary’s family isn’t our family.”
Just in case you’ve missed it, smartphones aren’t instruments of liberation the way cars were when we were teens. It’s clear they’re now instruments of abuse, depression, suicide, polarization, pornography, obesity, lack of sleep, online predators and even poor posture.
Schools are now moving to limit smartphone use in the classroom.
Last year, a new province-wide policy forbade smartphone use during class time in all Toronto public schools. Earl Gray Senior Public School, reacting to pressure from parents, now prohibits phone use in all classrooms and hallways, all day. Indeed, 80% of Canadian parents want smartphones banned entirely from schools. Do the students and schools comply with the new rules? Mostly, yes.
The numbers are lower in America, not because smartphone use is viewed as a civil right, but because there’s more worry about kids being able to reach out in an emergency, of which the U.S. has more than Canada. Especially in schools.
There’s all kinds of well-known bad news about social media. But amidst all that is the fact that in the 20 years since Facebook was launched, we are moving to shut down its lethal effects.
You think this is a long time? That we should have come to our senses sooner? That Big Tech has gamed the rules even though everybody knows the dice are loaded?
Well, think of how long it took to get seat belts made compulsory. Or to force us to stop smoking (11% of us still do). Or…how long it will take us to stop drinking alcohol?
You think having the odd drink now and then is okay? It seems not.
And on this subject, get ready for a battle as big as the one for smartphones, our new weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile…
1. What would you say to your 25-year-old self? Answering that question in 100 words or less is your assignment for our second Omnium Gatherum writing contest. The first was on February 22 and we asked you to write a true story about yourself that you’d rarely or never told. We got 55 entries and had a lot of fun – and revelation.
Today’s contest assumes you’re over 25 and have some important lessons to impart to your younger self. For most of us, at 25 life hasn’t happened yet. Now, it surely has.
Like last time, the limit in this contest is 100 words, which is just six or seven sentences. So….easy…but…hard, because it’s you today writing to you way back when. And speaking of you, it must be written by you, not your avatar, your bot, or your teenager.
Also, points will be given for felicity of expression, depth of feeling and lack of exclamation marks!
The deadline for submissions is Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Please use this link to submit your entry.
We will select the Bronze, Silver and Gold medal winners, and publish them in a future OGblog. Prizes include the quiet pride in a job well done. But as has been true for centuries and for billions of people around the world, your real reward will be in…heaven.
I look forward to reading what you see when you look back.
2. Bookmark this guy. I don’t know “Stanislav G”. But he offers some invaluable tips on Instagram about using our iPhones safely and creatively. Like if you lose your phone, or how to take screenshots without using your hands.
3. Quick, name that style. They’ll help you style your life. How to make a 2-hour commute into a 2-minute commute.
4. Jeff Wall opens at MOCA. Jeff Wall is one of the few Canadian artists with a worldwide following. This is because he’s helped establish photography as a contemporary art form. Starting October 19 and running through to March 22, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Toronto will host his first Canadian show in 25 years and his first in Toronto in 35 years. This is a big show: 50 iconic photographs spanning all three floors of the museum. Tickets here.
5. Diane Keaton. First, Meryl on Diane. Then Reese on Diane. Then Woody and Diane. Then Diane on Christmas.
Plus Jane Goodall from beyond and from a place where everyone matters.
6. Want to be a citizen scientist? NASA has over 30 Citizen Science Projects where you can volunteer to help make scientific discoveries. Most can be done with a cellphone or a laptop, plus your brains, of course.
7. Falling in and out of love with your AI companion. As Scott Galloway notes about a huge social problem that didn’t exist a year ago: “New York has enacted the first law in the U.S. mandating safeguards for AI companions as policymakers arrive at [this] conclusion: The dangers of synthetic relationships outweigh the benefits. The top use of gen AI today is therapy and companionship, not productivity and automation.”
Speaking of other misplaced love, the myth of sommelier culture is starting to crack.
8. Be kind. Which two political leaders talked about kindness in their election night victory speeches? Be a prince and talk about suicide. Be a walker. Be cool with your words.
And dare to be different when you write that personal statement. As one writer says: “Give me the personal statement that describes cowering under the kitchen table during a raging kitchen fire…of having an oppositional soldier in your cross-hairs…I want to hear from the candidate who won the world clogging championships at the age of 12, or the one who worked hard at becoming a varsity football player but ended up handing out towels on the bench.”
9. 5% of Canadians are millionaires. Our population is 40+ million and 2.1 million of us are millionaires. Maybe they should read Morgan Housel’s new book, not about making money or investing money, but The Art of Spending Money…because only a tiny fraction of us know how to do that well. As he notes: “We confuse admiration with envy, comfort with excess, and utility with status.”
10. What I’m liking: Mick Herron’s new Slow Horses novel, Clown Town. Of course, I now ‘see’ Gary Oldman whenever Jackson Lamb jumps off the page, and Kristin Scott Thomas whenever MI5’s ‘second desk’ Diana Taverner appears – because they’re the stars of the Apple+ TV series that looks like it could run forever, given that Herron is still churning out new books. But what I really love about Slow Horses are the fabulous interrogation scenes, even better than John Le Carre’s, or the ones in Line of Duty, with all its “bent coppers”.
I know. Real people don’t talk that way. But that’s why I love novels: not because they imitate life, but because they don’t.
Oh, and how popular is Slow Horses? There’s now a 5K footrace for them.