What are your thoughts & feelings about your future roles as parents or as caregivers and what your technology use might mean?
Since the beginning of Spring semester I have been thinking more about the impacts and influences of technology on my life than I have ever done before. This is certainly due to this course but also due to the couple of child psychology courses I have taken and currently taking. All of the information I have learned so far from these courses have caused me to think about my future role as a parent and the role technology will play. When I think of my future role as a parent and my technology use, I think of how mindful I want to be when it comes the impact my use of technology will have on my parenting.
As discussed recently in class, parents are the first role models children are exposed to. You do not need to be a parent to know that children learn from and model the actions and behavior of older individuals. If parents know that their children are watching and learning from them then why are they not more mindful of their technology use?
In a JSTOR Daily article published in 2017, Alexandra Samuel offers her insight on the often argued belief that smartphones have multiple negative effects on children today. She examines an article that argues smartphones are harming social interactions between youth and their mental health, and causing them to be less independent. But Samuel points out that the data used to form these conclusions does not actually support them. She then examines the increase in social media and technology use that often concerns parents. Data shows that children and teenagers are not the only ones increasing their use of technology and social media, adults are too. Samuel argues that children are becoming more disengaged because they see their parents and the adults in their life disengaged as well. She suggests that parents need to have the role as digital mentors, where they encourage their children to use technology but offer support and guidance on how to use it appropriately. When I think of myself as a parent, this is the approach I want to have when it comes to technology use. Parents need to recognize they are partly responsible for their children’s use of technology because they are not actively involved in monitoring and guiding their use. I also like this perspective because it does not mean parents should try to completely control their children’s use of technology, that would not be realistic.
While many parents and caregivers are recognizing better ways to approach their children’s technology use today, there are still parents that are more rigid in their approach. In a USA Today article, 3 mothers were interviewed about how they address their children’s social media use. When I first read this article and watched their interviewed I was a little shocked about how these mothers reacted to their children’s technology use. It seemed like the way they were approaching technology use was not in a digital mentor approach. One of the three mothers talked about how she uses an app that allows her to monitor her children’s phones. The app allowed her to monitor and manage her children’s activity on their social media accounts, see their locations, block their texting, and even lock their phone screens to manage screen time. I thought that the mother using an app to monitor and manage her children’s devices and social media accounts was extreme, her children had no privacy. This reminded me of the parenting styles discussed in lecture, authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved. An authoritative parent is high in demand, very controlling, and parent-centered. I cannot assume that the mother that uses this app has an authoritarian parenting style based on this alone but I can assume she has an authoritarian approach to her children’s technology use. I also wonder about the children feel about their mother using an app to manage their technology use. It might cause them to feel like there is no privacy in their lives or that their mother does not trust them. This could have possible outcomes in the future.
It is interesting to see how parents and caregivers are dealing with technology use in their children as they grow up. Some parents are more concerned with monitoring and managing their children’s use while some parents may understand that not all technology use is negative. I think by understanding my own use of technology, in the future as a parent I will know how to appropriately approach my child’s use of technology.
References
Graham, J., & Maltais, M. (2018, December 18). Parents talk tech: How many likes would you give raising kids in the age of social media? USA TODAY. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/12/19/challenges-raising-kids-age-social-media/2350534002/
Samuel, A. (2017, August 8). Yes, Smartphones Are Destroying a Generation, But Not of Kids. JSTOR Daily. Retrieved from https://daily.jstor.org/yes-smartphones-are-destroying-a-generation-but-not-of-kids/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=20170813Mindshift&mc_key=00Qi000001X2OYEEA3
Technology Today 