Fascinating article in today’s New York Times, suggesting that parents’ obsession with technology — from smartphones to computers — is actually damaging their children. It claims that the amount of time parents focus on these tools would otherwise be spent on their children — talking with them, playing with them, and otherwise interacting.
For the past five years, Sherry Turkle, director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, has been studying how parental use of technology affects children. Her findings: Feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition frequently result. These reactions were particularly common on three occasions: at meals, during pickup after school or extracurricular activities and during sports events.
Other research has shown that the amount of time parents spend talking to their children impacts the children’s vocabulary. The article gave examples of how, in many cases, the average number of words per hour spoken by adults to a child increased drastically when the parents’ smartphones and computers were turned off.
For more, visit here.
Personally, I’m obsessively attached to my Blackberry, so I understand how a mom could get distracted. But the potential impact is disturbing.
I’d love to know your thoughts. Has tech time gotten out of hand in your family? Do you feel your kids are suffering because of it? If so, what if anything have you done to cut back? And will you make any changes as a result of the findings noted in the Times article?
