Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master!!

Christian Louise Lange

Parenting has always been a challenging task after all our kids don’t come with a user manual, isn’t it?? Earlier, children were raised in a community comprising of joint family, extended family members, neighbours, etc. Therefore, children had multiple options for emotional support, social development and fulfillment of other needs. As the family members dispersed in search of better educational, career and financial options, the support systems were left behind. Now, most of the urban population has nuclear families with parents and either 1 or 2 kids. Although the extended families have disappeared, now, with the advent of technology, the smartphones have become our extended limbs. We cannot deny it’s presence in our lives rather we have to accept that our lives are mostly dependent on it.

And when we say smart phones have become irreplaceable in our lives, they automatically find place in our kids’ lives too. Kids as young as a year olds having their meals in front of mobile screens is a familiar picture today. Kids seeking entertainment, education, communication, social connect find all these needs satisfied in one single device called “smart phone” and therefore kids are glued to it. But as parents, it is our duty to understand that children’s continuous smartphone use exposes them to physical, mental, and academic harm.

The parents must therefore be strictly vigilant of the smart phone use of their children. Of course, we make the first role models for our children and thus it is imperative for us to be responsible about our smart phone use too. Today’s smart kids don’t buy this logic easily that we are adults and we need to use phones for our work purposes. And then they have this logic that they also need to use phones for studies, assignments, projects, etc. which has also become a reality post pandemic. So instead of just arguing or snatching away the phones from them, we need to make some guidelines about screen and internet use for the children. We, parents can also follow some of these rules so that kids feel encouraged to continue (for eg. no screens while eating, no screens before sleep, etc.) In addition to this, before giving the kids their own gadget, the children should be made aware of the pros and cons of every gadget. The dark side of internet such as gaming addiction, pornography, cyberbullying is really dangerous, and children should be educated about these aspects to save them from falling prey to such things.

There is a famous letter written by Janelle Burley Hofmann to her 13-year-old son before she handed him his own iphone. This letter is a sort of rule book for him. This letter can be a guideline for all parents before giving them their own smart phone. Here’s the link for the letter. Do read it and think about some of the points which you can use to make rule book for your children!

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iphone-contract-from-your-mom_b_2372493

Just remember,

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do!!

B. F. Skinner.