I
t is terrifying parenting children in a
digital world - even when you’re a
geek like I am. Technology changes
exponentially every second of every
minute, of every hour of every day. It
seems impossible to keep up with it.
Their attention seems to flip from
one thing to another so quickly that
we think they have ADHD or ADD.
Their teachers even tell us they have
Attention Deficit Disorder.
We feel like they are part of a world that
we are not. We don’t know the rules of
that world and we think our old-school
rules don’t work. We’re stumped and
terrified of what is going to become of
our children.
Parents feel overwhelmed by the
amount of time their children spend
connected to devices. We worry that
we are losing power or influence over
our children because we are not as
technologically literate as them and
don’t know what they are actually We get told by educators that 2 hours
doing on their phones, computers or screen time a day is the maximum
tablets.
we should allow, but our kids are
on much longer than that. We read
We see them playing games that articles about teenagers killing their
involve guns, blood, guts and gore and parents because they took away their
worry that they are going to become favourite Xbox game. We’re told that
violent psychopaths. We’re concerned technology is destroying creativity,
because they no longer stand up when human relationships, our brains, and
an adult enters a room and don’t seem the social fabric of our worlds. It’s
to listen to us when we speak to them. making us lonely people.
We are convinced that their command
of the English language is degenerating So what do we do? How do we parent
into a collection of abbreviations and these children we feel we don’t relate
slang. We’re constantly worrying about to at all anymore? How do we stop
them being stalked or bullied on-line, technology turning them into digital
of revealing too much information. monsters?
Technology changes
exponentially every second
of every minute, of every
hour of every day.