(Newswire.net — October 23, 2022) — A modern person needs to be able to use digital technologies. This gives incredible opportunities for storing, transmitting, and searching for information. Digital devices were also in the hands of our children, allowing them to have access to any information, try a lot of online entertainment, and communicate with each other around the clock.
Nevertheless, parents have difficulties with raising children who spend more and more time in front of monitors. But the problem is that sometimes this is not what our children need.
Many children do not let their phones out of their hands for days, because they are much more interested in virtual life. And this is not just a problem for children. Recently, buidlbee.com published an article about hard times for crypto projects. The article also mentions that at the time when such P2E crypto-projects as STEPN and Axie Infinity just appeared, people quit their jobs to make money on cryptocurrencies. However, over time, income from games has fallen and now all these people are actively hating both projects.
Today we will talk about how to avoid family problems due to the use of gadgets.
The role of parents in the digital world
Jean Jacques Rousseau said back in 1763 that the main role of parents is to be a kind of buffer between children and society. This idea is still relevant today. Parents in the world of digital technologies are a buffer for children until they learn how to properly handle information and digital devices. Parents need to prepare their children for going out into the big world, contributing to the formation of natural affection as the child grows up.
The latest research has shown that digital addiction is much stronger than alcohol and tobacco. With the help of parents, children should have an understanding of what digital technologies are and why they are needed. We should not spoil the appetite of our children before lunch by allowing them to get acquainted with digital devices and social networks prematurely.
Direct access to information destroys children’s dependence on adults
It is important to understand that taking care of children means putting them in a position dependent on adults, and the main areas in which it is easiest to establish hierarchical relationships are food, company, and information. Modern children take food from the refrigerator, communicate with each other, and use Google to find answers to questions, free access to information that suffocates the nascent individuality and tender sprouts of ideas, curiosity, and reflection. The child does not need more information, but more contact, intimacy, and an invitation to exist in our life. Children should be fed with this, and only then they will become independent beings. And now children are experiencing boredom at an unprecedented rate, out of boredom they are looking for more information and more social stimulation, which, in turn, does not help to cope with it.
Social networks and close relationships
Parents need to create rituals and rules to protect healthy attachment and to protect children from premature external influences. For example, do not use gadgets during dinner, because this is the time when we invite each other to exist in the present moment.
Parents can create rituals in which unity with the family could take place. It nourishes and fills children, allowing them to be able to “ponder” what comes from the digital world. And also the temptation to freely use digital technologies should be out of the reach of children up to a certain point.
Attachment is what creates culture. It preserves connections, preserves ways of transmitting culture, and by allowing children to become attached to their parents, it creates a context for us in which we can raise them. When parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and beloved teachers are important to children and are a reference point for them, then they will not need to live in a social network.
Parents need to know the signs of the behavior of a child who has problems and to be aware of the limits of their natural power. Many children are addicted to digital technology and cannot control the time spent in front of screens. In this case, parents need to intervene. However, first of all, it is necessary to restore and strengthen relationships with children. This is the moment when it’s time to return the child to yourself, win his heart again, and deepen the relationship. After all, to get rid of addiction, children need not only a relationship with their parents but also a sense of satisfaction from these relationships and the invitation to the parents’ life.
Potential digital technologies can be used to maintain and deepen relationships: reading books to children while away, doing something together, or spending time together while staying in touch.
Having learned to encode information into ones and zeros, a person opened the era of information. But since a person has always needed communication, which is the main need, digital devices very quickly became communication devices. Parents need to protect their children by understanding the possibilities of technology and knowing about the possible dependence of a person on technology. This is possible if we understand that children need contact and emotional intimacy with adults who take care of them.