Raising children in this evolving environment should not be to resist technological change but to coexist with it and harmonize it with the developmental needs of children at different stages of their lives. This can be achieved by informed parenting with strategic interventions combined with educating oneself with tech updates and upgrades happening all around the world.
Dr. Nadia Shah
In the era of technological explosion, it is impossible to imagine a sector that has remained untouched by it. The dynamics in all the economic sectors viz primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary and social and institutional sectors have revolutionized and it seems like everything is completely in control of the respective technological shift. Even thinking has been taken over by technology with the introduction of interactive chatbots like DeepSeek and ChatGPT. Under the given circumstances, a rapid adjustment to this new world order has rendered the old-world view almost obsolete and irrelevant. Although tech and technological dependence was born only yesterday but the impact it has been able to make on the lives of the people is deep, long lasting and almost unbelievable for people from older generations.
The domains of human interactions and human relationships have also undergone a massive shift due to the constant presence as well as a genuine requirement and adjustment to the growing technological presence amongst them. Parenting is one such domain that needs to be addressed. What complicates this further is the fact that for today’s children, technology is an essential component of growing up while their parents see technology as an innovation and a replacement. It has deeply impacted child behaviour and the parent behaviour.
Children grow in a world where screens are indispensable, information is instant, and everything including social interactions have gone online. They are over-stimulated with limited opportunities to develop empathy. With attention span going progressively down, children are growing increasingly impulsive. Social media generates reduced self-esteem, growing peer pressure and feeling of never being enough for something. Accordingly, social relationships and emotional development have been altered remarkably.
Since, parents are more aware than their children about the tech-driven sweeping changes in social setup, they have a bigger role to play in creating safe and compatible spaces to strike some behavioural balance for a thriving parent child relationship. Present-day children do not rely solely on their parents for support, guidance and direction; they develop an attitude of self- dependence at a very early age. Access to technology has had an empowering as well as a challenging effect on them. Therefore, helicopter parenting is totally out of the question. Thus, parental intervention needs to be revisited. The importance parents have in their children’s lives will always remain relevant but the roles they play calls for an upgrade.
In addition to imposing some restrictive policies like monitoring content and setting screen-time, parents can involve themselves by co-engaging with children during digital activities. This can positively transform screen time into shared learning experiences and strengthen the parent-child bond. Besides, a display of responsible and balanced screen usage shall be subsumed by them at a subconscious level which can help them set their habits right. Digital literacy must be instilled at a very early age to ensure safety and inculcate responsible behaviour.
It is not possible to keep children away from interacting with technology. Therefore, the ultimate goal of raising children in this evolving environment should not be to resist technological change but to coexist with it and harmonize it with the developmental needs of children at different stages of their lives. This can be achieved by informed parenting with strategic interventions combined with educating oneself with tech updates and upgrades happening all around the world.
(The author is Assistant Professor of English, Higher Education Department, J&K Government)