EDITORIAL

Holding ourselves accountable for technology addiction

Posted 9/26/19

It's perhaps the biggest issue that parents have to deal with today in regards to their children, and unfortunately it is an issue that generates far more questions than anyone has answers to provide. No, it's not about keeping your kid from starting

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EDITORIAL

Holding ourselves accountable for technology addiction

Posted

It’s perhaps the biggest issue that parents have to deal with today in regards to their children, and unfortunately it is an issue that generates far more questions than anyone has answers to provide.

No, it’s not about keeping your kid from starting vaping or smoking cigarettes – though that’s certainly a cause for concern for any parent. We’re talking about screen time, and specifically how much time today’s youth spend in front of screens and on implements such as social media.

Issues that parents have always had to grapple with – things like drugs, drinking and trying to steer their children away from having unprotected sex – are a bit different than the issue of screen time. There are entire sections of book stores dedicated to helping parents find the right approach to monitoring those vices, but the problems associated with the advent of ever-present technology presents a brand-new challenge without much institutional knowledge to rely on.

Kids take to technology almost instinctually. Anyone who has a small child or has babysat an infant knows there is nothing quite as effective at gaining some serene moments of silence as plopping the child in front of a screen. Whether it’s a 60-inch television or an iPhone, the intoxicating grasp of its power on young minds is readily apparent.

The implications of this, however, are troubling. With some 95 percent of teenagers having access to a smart phone and the internet, the generation coming up through school now is the first generation that will be, in part, raised by the wild sprawl of the world wide web – a world that, without a knowledgeable parent taking proper precautions, has no safety rails and no mercy for impressionable, mistake-prone children that utilize it.

It’s not exactly a new crisis, either. Kids sharing scandalous photos of themselves and each other on apps like Snapchat or WhatsApp, or spreading awful rumors or embarrassing videos about a classmate that has led to a suicide on social media sites like Facebook, have made news rounds in the past, and will likely continue to do so as we continue to navigate this new world.

The tangible risks for kids in this world are obvious. They could post something on the internet – something that will never be truly “deleted” – that can come back to affect them later in life, perhaps decades later. Maybe it ruins their chance at a dream job, or creates a scandal when it is dug up later in life that affects their children and loved ones. Kids do not possess the forethought to understand that what goes on the internet, stays there.

The risk for kids socially and developmentally who live their lives in a virtual space as opposed to their own reality are also numerous. Where face-to-face interactions encourage empathy and understanding for their fellow humans, online (often anonymous) interactions enable nastiness to breed and fester without remorse or consequence. You can probably recall the number of truly hateful things someone has said to your face within the past couple of years with your fingers. Try to do that with online interactions and it may require your toes, and then someone else’s phalanges as well. For kids, these types of interactions realistically could be happening every single day.

As kids spend more time in this bubble removed from the real world, they also risk the ability to grapple with real-life challenges and problems – opting for a world that they can cultivate and control, such as in a video game. These issues will only expound as they grow and real responsibilities of adulthood begin to appear.

What also contributes to the problem is the fact that the people who should be responsible for helping kids navigate through this new reality – their parents – are just as caught up in the addiction to screen time as the kids are. How often have you seen a parent sitting on a park bench, ignoring their child playing nearby, face sucked into a phone screen, finger endlessly swiping downwards?

We must be honest with our children – and ourselves – about the danger of becoming addicted to screens. We must be able to educate children about the possible pitfalls of life on the web, and protect them from falling victim to its unforgiving nature. We must also hold ourselves accountable to the intoxicating nature of these devices, and set the right example for the generations who will know no other world than one where reality is intertwined with the virtual.

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