Impact of Technology on Family Time

Marisol Ramos Ibarra

Professor Garza

English 3 TTH 8:30-9:45

31 January 2018

Impact of technology on family time

There is no doubt about it, the way we communicate with a family member today has changed throughout the years. Just years ago, texting messaging, facetiming, and emailing was not a method of family communication. Now today, it is widely used by families all around. Technology can be used to improve the way to do things. For years now, it has been playing an important role in our life. All around the world people are using high technology to do their works, as well as many advanced technologies. Technology has become a part of our life to do our works much faster and precise. As we know, every organization has its own machine which has replaced humans produce more output. Technology brings lots of benefits to many people but unfortunately, it can bring negative effects to families. Is technology tearing apart family life? Text messaging, social media, and online video games are changing the way both parents and children see the world and one another.

Advanced technology has drastically changed family’s life. Both parents and children have less interaction with each one another due to them spending their time with technology like laptops, smartphones, video games, television and so on. Nowadays children aren’t children, because they no longer spend time playing and interlock in activities with both their parents and siblings. For example, back when I was younger, we did not need any internet games to have fun, we had our own games which were the traditional games such as tag, tic tac toe, jump rope, hopscotch, and the list goes on. These games would build up a positive relationship between both the parent and the child, but these traditional games are slowly replaced by the current technology that brings out “fun”. This example shows, that advanced technology is replacing traditional games which create more interaction between a family. Unfortunately, children today are more likely to play with electric devices instead of playing traditional games. In Keisha Hoerrner’s book Children, Technology & Culture: The Impacts of Technologies in Children's Everyday Lives it looks at the interaction of children and technology which poses critical questions for how to understand the nature of childhood in modern society. It brings together researchers from a range of corrections to address the aspects in the connection between children and technology. Hoerrner says, “Childhood, it seems, is increasingly saturated by technology. From television to the internet, video games to personal computers, camcorders to mobile phones, children engage with and exercise competence in a whole range of technologies…” (Hoerrner 1). The effect of technology could worsen a family because they are addicted to the current technology that's available.

Technology is slowly changing the way we communicate with one another and affecting our personal relationship. It also gives us the chance to meet and interact with people in a much easier way. Most people, both parents and children are spending more time on social media then interacting face to face. They are now trying to communicate with people who are miles away and, in the process, are neglecting the people who are physically present next to them. Facebook is a great example to show that both parents and children would rather communicate through their technology. For example, making a friend is now on a finger click away, to make a new friend they simply click on “add as friend” and boom they made a “friend” but social media is ruining the face to face interaction. With all the socializing on social media both parents and children fail to connect with one another which may make them feel in awkward position and would rather go back to interacting on a screen. In Marcia Clemmitt article she explains how people have quickly turned new technologies of all kinds into new and improved ways to meet one of humanity's strongest need which is socialize (Clemmitt 92). She states, “From Facebook to the photo-sharing site Pinterest to virtual adventure games, software that helps people meet, converse, work and compete with others is drawing billions online. The use of social media comes with a price...critics of social media express concern that many members of the digital generation may fail to develop vital communication skills because they prefer virtual contact over face-to-face conversations” (Clemmitt 81). We are in the next wave of technology, where communicating with parents or children is all done on the internet.

Parents and children are spending less time in each other’s company and the time they do spend together often involves playing games on an electric device or watching television. Most children are not even leaving their houses because they're too busy playing inside with their devices, but parents are no different they are also too busy being on their device that can’t be bothered to take their children to the park. In Alex Williams essay Quality Time, Redefined he explains how technology can bring family closer. In his essay he states, “One family. One room. Four screens. Four realities, basically. While it may look like some domestic version of “The Matrix”—families sharing a common space, but plugged into entirely separate planes of existence through technology…” (Williams 94). Williams may believe that technology helps bring a family closer, but he doesn’t realize that those screens take valuable family. He put an image in his essay that has a family of four with all of them on their devices. The family may be all together spending “quality time” but are they really? They are more focused on the device then they are the people around them.