Social Media and Technology: Sometimes Parent Have No Clue
William Jackson – #MyQuestToTeach
Social Media Visionary
Parents and their children talking about the
influence of technology and the family structure.
Can sometimes be a conflicting and heated discussion.
Technology is slowly unraveling the family
structure of bonding as one to being lead to
unravel like twine from a bundle.
Talking with families like the Harris family
during a workshop discussing Social Media and
Technology, just one of the many families that
organized by Cynthia Gibson, Program Manager
of The Bridge of Northeast Florida to bring
attention to the potential dangers of increased
tech usage by youth, teens and young adults.
Even parental use can cause problems because
parents attentions are distracted from their
families and children reducing important
parenting time and teaching time.
The family structure is a delicate and complex
mixture of emotions, socio-economic needs,
spiritual connections and biological bonding.
When technology is thrown in there is a gap
that is created because tech can make life
messy and lead to separation, isolation and
dissension. The attention is taken from the
norm and thrust into a realm of make-believe,
pretend and animation that grabs hold of the
senses and refuses to let go.
Over 100 parents and children participated
in reviewing a video concerning how Technology,
Social Media and Gaming are damaging the family
structure resulting in the decrease of family
unity, participation in family events and how
communities are being affected because technology
usage decreases the time children and their
families interact with each other and their
neighbors.
Data is showing that technology usage can cause
behavior and emotional changes that are gradual
as the use of technology grows. Brain studies
show that youth, teens and young adults connection
to their families and friends change because tech
even in gaming becomes more of a priority than
social connections and food and social engagement.
“SCREENAGERS Growing Up In the Digital Age,”
Physical changes come in the lose of weight, vision
proficiency decreases because of staring at screens,
mental stresses that can lead to mental health
disorders and even the trouble distinguishing reality
from fantasy in some extreme cases when playing
violent video games.
The video “SCREENAGERS Growing Up In the Digital Age,”
2017 can be used as a case study for what youth,
teens and young adults maybe going through or
experiencing if parents are not engaged and
involved with their children as they use more
technology. “SCREENAGERS Growing Up In the Digital Age,”
shares how tech time impacts kids and family
development and quality time together.
The video discusses a balance of family time,
technology time, community time, school time and
the interactions of people and their potential
addiction to technology.
There are even new and developing businesses like
“Restart: Internet Rehabilitation Center” that
treat youth, teens and young adults that have
become addicted to various forms of technology
especially gaming. Providing counseling services
to address the needs of gaming and tech addition.
Movies like “Surrogates” 2016, “I Robot” 2004,
“Gamer” 2009, “Her” 2013, are associated with
how technology affects the human ability to
connect, coexistence with tech and develop
lines of engagement. Parents must be aware
of how much technology their children are exposed
to and how much their children are using and who
they are connecting to.
Parents are encouraged to take the time to talk
to their children and even self examine how they
are role models for technology usage. To provide
family time and activity instead of using tech
for communication and connection. Just as was
told about the television, that TV should not
be used to raise children, this is even more
of an issue when parents let technology raise
their children. The dangers are real and
relevant in our digital society.
During the presentation the children presented
from elementary to high school to share how
they will change their usage to be more active
with family and even parents and grandparents
spoke in front of the audience sharing what they
learned, their fears and even expectations for
technology usage from them as parents and
for their children.
Active engagement is very important because
there needs to be open and honest discussion
between parents and their children about tech,
gaming and social media usage so it does not
distract from family time, study time and being
a kid to learn from playing and interacting
with others.
Social skills and behaviors are learned, shared,
evaluated, re-assessed and even modified for
children because play and interaction allow for
learning and growth. If children are denied the
opportunities to learn they will not be able to
learn important skills that help them function
in society and in their communities.
Programs seen on PBS – addressing the family
and technology are important to help parents
understand what children are going through as
they mature and interact with technology.
Parents are important in this cycle because of
the potential for addiction and loosing of
social skills by their children an even parents
themselves.
Resources:
We Are Digital Natives
https://youtu.be/OAJ5-HIAAfE
Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants
https://youtu.be/uIS9Eo7H1fE
My Quest To Teach 