All posts in category Parenting

The Kids Are Not All Right

Corporate Interests Threaten Children’s Welfare – NYTimes.com.

I agree with much of what this author says about the damaging effect of corporate media and social media on not only the kids themselves, but on family dynamics.

He makes a kind of modified plea for “family values,” which he identifies with the 20th century’s focus on prioritizing the well-being of children (at least, in middle-class white North American families).

I’d like to suggest that we don’t need to look backward to find our way out of the morass of childhood media addiction…we need to look forward.  The digital media is here to stay, at least as long as civilization as we know it holds up.

How can we learn to navigate through it, for ourselves and our children, in a way that feels healthy, balanced and nourishing?

If we can’t figure this out, I fear the computers–and the corporations that are behind them–will suck our souls dry.

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by Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. on August 22, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Alternative Futures, Community, Parenting
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Posted by Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. on August 22, 2011

https://bethechange2012.com/2011/08/22/the-kids-are-not-all-right/

Kids and Media…at wits’ end

So what’s wrong with this picture?  Here we are, perched on rocky cliffs above the ocean, it’s a beautiful sunny day, full of possibilities…and all four kids, ages 7 – 19, are sitting on the couches, each plugged in to their own little screen.  DSI (what does that stand for?) i-pad, i-touch and laptop….each fixated on the screens, ignoring each other and the incredibly beautiful outdoor scene that beckons right in front of them.

This scene was repeated scores of times in the week that I spent with my two sons and their two cousins at the seaside in Nova Scotia.  Repeatedly, it took the focused attention of the adults present to divert the kids from their virtual reality, forcing them to engage with each other and the outside world.

I find it frightening.

Two of these kids spent their formative early childhood years in a Waldorf environment (my older son went to a Steiner school through 8th grade, the younger one through 5th grade).  The other two are going to a private school that values reading, art and performance.  Yet nothing is more compelling to any of them than the games offered by their devices.  They howl in protest if detached from their digital umbilical cord.

Once re-engaged with the real world, they are happy to climb the rocks, make sand castles on the beach, play chess, or read.  But it takes real work on the part of us adults to make this happen.  The only way to ease that burden would be to cut the wireless completely.  But then we adults couldn’t check our email or read the New York Times or consult Google.  Can’t have it both ways.

Seriously, folks, what is going to happen to the next few generations, if the current trajectory of digitization remains unchanged?

 If the children of today don’t understand the importance of connecting with the real world, will we all become like the humans of Wall-E, couch dwellers totally fixated on our screens?

The problem with media technology today is that it’s totally seductive, and kids don’t get “moderation.”

What’s a parent to do?  If you have any good ideas, please share them….

signed,

At wits’ end

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by Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. on August 16, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Media analysis, Parenting
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Posted by Jennifer Browdy, Ph.D. on August 16, 2011

https://bethechange2012.com/2011/08/16/kids-and-media-at-wits-end/

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