As a step into my research on today's societies dependancy on modern technology, my tutor gave me this article to start with.
Titled Why parents are getting angrier: 'children are bored out of their skulls with real life', the article looks at the work of Mike Fisher, who runs parenting courses and workshops for parents who are getting angered by uncooperative children.
In the article (Skinner, 2016) Mike explains that the main cause of parents becoming so angry at their children is that their children will not cooperate or do as their told. The world is now so overloaded with information that the children can access at any time of day or night. He says:
"Children have access to incredible information, such as social media and apps. It’s instant gratification and just another distraction from being present. That can have a catastrophic effect on children. They are consumed by social media and games, staying up later and becoming preoccupied. They are bored out of their skulls by real life. Meaning they are becoming less and less cooperative. And parents are getting angrier about it every year.”
When I was little, there was no internet at home, not even a PC computer. As I got older I had a Comodore 64 which allowed me to play games through the attached tape cassette drive or I could buy cartridges for it. Handheld games had one or two games built in and then came the Game boy, where you could buy different (and expensive) games to play on it, but we are talking original Super Mario Brothers and Tetris. We played a lot outside, going out after breakfast and having to be home for tea or when the street lights came on.
Nowadays, kids have access to a whole world of information. Most homes will have a laptop or PC (or both) where kids can access the internet, and not just to check on social media or research school projects but they also have access to games, programmes and films all in the same place. Up until recently, my eldest child had never heard of an encyclopedia! This is not to mention the numerous games consoles available, whether the bigger consoles or handheld ones. And then throw in smartphones, tablet devices and even IPods now where not only to they use the internet but they also have access to numerous apps to keep them busy. They have so much choice with all these things to entertain them, why would they want to do anything else. Between all these devices, a lot of time can pass and they can be entertained for hours. I think this is what Fisher means in that statement. They don't want to play outside (not that its safe for younger children to do nowadays in my own opinion). They want to be occupied in social media, they want to watch american tv shows, they want to play car games or battle games and update their Snapchat. So when parents attempt to remove them from that environment, the children get agitated. As Fisher says, they get bored without it and so act up and then the parents get agitated. And over prolonged periods of the children acting this way, and the parents not knowing why they are acting up - they get angry.
But as the article also explains, the parents are ashamed by the way they themselves are behaving and are ashamed about it. They wont admit it as they believe it is down to bad parenting but really it is down to the overwhelming amount of technology available to the kids today. Fisher explains that our culture lets us believe that we have to put on a front that everything is ok and that we are coping well with it all, when really parents can be pushed to their limits. But that as parents, we lack the ability to openly communicate with our children and that we can build up stresses then take them out on the children when things don't go as they should. Fisher also highlights that parents are stretched with so many stresses that are ingrained into us. We feel we have to live up to the idealised parent as well as compete with other parents, peers, partners and our own upbringing so parenting becomes more about how we actually parent in light of all those things as opposed to just going with it and working with our children.
The article is insightful in that parents can feel blame in their parenting ability when technology and the way the children are consumed by it can cause a lot of the stress between parents and children. I think we can all relate to it in a way. I know my children constantly nag to play on their computers, etc because its more fun than purely watching tv, or reading or playing with their toys. It's another world that they can escape to where they are not bothered by anyone and can do what they want (within reason). So trying to bring them back to reality can trigger a resentment towards the parents and a frustration in that parent towards the child. This then creates a barrier between the family and an example of how modern technology can create a break in the family unit.
References:
Skinner, N,. 2016. Why parents are getting angrier: 'children are bored out of their skulls with real life'. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/03/why-parents-are-getting-angrier-children-are-bored-out-of-their-skulls-with-real-life. [Accessed: 14th September 2016]
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