Fellows & Friends of History talk: Dr Tony Ward, 'The Kids are (Mostly) All Right'

Name: Fellows & Friends of History talk: Dr Tony Ward, 'The Kids are (Mostly) All Right'
Start: 2025-01-29T17:00:00+11:00
Location: 257 Old Arts, University of Melbourne

Schedule

Wed, 29 Jan, 2025 at 05:00 pm

UTC+11:00

Location

257 Old Arts, University of Melbourne | Melbourne, VI

Dr Tony Ward (Fellow, History), 'The Kids are (Mostly) All Right'
Fellows & Friends of History talk
The closing months of 2024 saw heated debates over the impact of social media on young people. Concerns centre on worries about damage to youngsters’ mental and social health.
Tony Ward begs to differ, drawing on a range of historical and social research. There is a long history of older people fretting about the young. Actually, young people are smarter, more tolerant, and more optimistic than their elders – and a lot more skilled on skateboards. They may also be more anxious – but that is a totally reasonable response to current situations. If social media is having the damaging effects many claim, it’s not showing up in this picture. The pernicious patterns are stoked more by legacy media, especially amongst its ageing readership.
Tony Ward is, since 2011, a Fellow in History at the University of Melbourne. Prior to that, he had a varied career in academia, senior positions in the Victorian public service, and 17 years as principal of an economic consulting company. Tony has published two books: Sport in Australian National Identity (2010) and Bridging Troubled Waters: Australia and Asylum Seekers (2017), and numerous articles, ranging across the economics of inequality, sports history, and Australian migration history. He has recently written several articles for The Conversation and for the Pearls and Irritations website.
$10.00 for talk and refreshments
Bookings: email Graham Dudley: [email protected]