I'll try. It's a tricky one.
We also need to remember that we have some things that disattach us from each other. I'd say screens it's in general. That's been documented for a long time. When I started working in schools in 2002-03, I remember how offensive it was to consider something like a corporate logo on an in-school poster. I remember that, and I took it seriously, because schools are sacred places. Just a few years later, every kid in the school board was getting a Gmail address. I wondered if there was a bit of hypocrisy in saying you couldn't have a corporate logo, but everybody could have a Gmail address.
I'm sorry to say it, but I think we were also delusional about the benefits of technology in schools continuing to bind kids to screens as a form of learning. There are some people I can recommend who would speak about how that hasn't worked for students. We have things that work against us all the time.
If you bring people together in person, you don't find polarization. Part of it is that you lose your social capital if you say some of the things in person that you would say online, and you're also not anonymous. For a long time, everyone was thinking we should meet young people where they are, presuming that they were on Instagram. I don't think that was ever a good idea. We should always have been doing things in person. I know it's more expensive, but I think we might now be waking up to the idea that maybe great things are just more expensive.
There's also a role to play.... This isn't me being mean or inconsiderate, but how you all treat each other publicly does some role modelling for people in terms of how we talk to each other. The worse you speak to each other, the more okay it is for people not to speak kindly to each other. We have a really bad example of that close to us, but not in our country. Educators tell people that kids will role model what they see from the highest voices in the land. It's just something to factor into this type of thing.
None of it, Ms. Vandenbeld, is easy. It's a work in progress. The more we're off these devices, the more socially cohesive we are naturally.