Technology and the Family: Good, Bad, or Somewhere in Between - Research Paper Example

 Technology and the Family: Good, Bad, or Somewhere in Between? Technology changes constantly, and at a constantly increasing pace. Because of this, families today do not usually interact in the same way that they did one hundred, fifty, or even fifteen years ago. Opinion is split on whether the changes are beneficial or negative, however. Many people seem to think that technology is totally ruining the family, because people are paying much more attention to their own gadgets than they do to family members, or value their online friendships more. On the other hand, there are some benefits of communications technology that seem unarguably good. For instance, the Internet and webcams allow family members to stay in touch even when there are great distances between them. There are benefits and drawbacks, but ultimately we have to remember that technology is just a tool. The way families decide to use technology, and not that technology itself, is what decides whether its impact on the family is good or bad. A lot of newspapers and blogs—especially blogs—seem to approach technology as an undeniable destroyer of the family. Titles that try to shock people are popular, and negative titles do that a lot more efficiently, so this explain why in part. Ironically, the technology that bloggers are worried about is the same technology they are using to make their arguments. It is, of course, entirely possible that these journalists and bloggers are writing about a problem that is not really all that bad. Research by Yahoo found that "72 percent of families with children eat dinner together each day [and] nine out of 10 families with children enjoy family time" (Burns 2006). In a blog post titled "Is technology fracturing your family?", Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry, is afraid that "some people consider the traditional family dinner to be an insignificant, old-fashioned ritual" (2009). He suggests that technology has made dinner become too hectic, because everyone is playing video games or texting on their phones instead of talking to one another. This is bad, he says, because "family dinners still provide a good setting for children and adolescents to learn basic social skills in conversation, dining etiquette, and basic empathy" (Small 2009). Oddly, though, Dr. Small does not seem to consider television to be as much of a problem. While he adds it to his list of bad impacts, he also mentions that he had told his son to "Stop playing that darn video game and come down and watch TV with me" (Small 2009). Television is obviously a communications technology too, so it is curious to see it lumped together with "face to face" time like this. Dana Wollman's article for Laptop Magazine seems similarly anti-technology based on its title: "Is technology tearing apart family life?" However, the article itself is undecided on whether technology is beneficial or not. Wollman says that parents raising tech-savvy kids need to remember the motto “Everything in moderation" (2009). She quotes several researchers and doctors throughout the article, ultimately suggesting that things like Facebook are not really anti-social, just social in different ways. Youtube, for instance, can be used as a bonding experience. At the same time, parents need to remember that parents need to remember to instruct their children as well as just trying to be cool. They should "control the content their children are viewing" instead of just laughing at it regardless (2009). Brad Stone, like Dr. Small, mentions "simpler mornings, not too long ago" where his interviewees "sat together and chatted as they ate breakfast" (2009). The tone of this piece, as expected of the New York Times, is much more journalistic, and seems less biased towards trying to convince its readers that technology is dangerous or beneficial. Stone talks about the problems technology can cause at dinner time or breakfast time, and suggests families set aside technology-free times to make it easier to do traditional family stuff. Stone also notes that it is not just children and teenagers who have a technology problem. James Steyer, a business-man whose family sets aside personal time, says "he constantly feels the tug of waiting messages on his BlackBerry" (2009). Scholarly articles tended to be more focused than the popular articles, with the result that they were really only talking more about how technology affects the family in specific instances. In general, scholarly research "appears to support the notion that technology use is allowing us to better connect with one another and to maintain our existing relationships" (Chesley and Johnson 2010). Internet connectivity increases families' ability to coordinate activities with one another, although using too much technology tends to be connected to poorer health and higher stress (Chesley and Johnson 2010). Despite these drawbacks, the overall opinion is that technology can help at least as much as it can harm. Bouffard, for instance, found that "Students whose families used Internet-based school communication demonstrated more positive outcomes" (2008). However, Bouffard could not figure out from her survey why this was the case, and warned that disadvantaged families were less "likely to have access to Internet technology and to use it to communicate with schools" than those who were better off (2008). This is worrying, because it means that families who already have limited educational success are only likely to get worse. Although Bouffard does not mention family relationships explicitly, the implication is that these students are communicating with their family more using technology. English-Lueck notes that families, in fact, are not defined by what they are, but by what they do together. Because of this, "devices that facilitate that action or talk—phones, networked computers, pagers, answering machines—take on a serious purpose for these people" (English-Lueck 1998). Although his study is obviously a bit dated now, its basic conclusions seem to remain valid ones. People can use technology to stay in touch more with one another even when they live in the same city, using cell phones or mobile computers to let each other know they are there for their families. On the other hand, wide-spread technology use has also led to "the colonization of home time by work" as people bring it home with them (English-Lueck 1998). Chesley's article focused more specifically on how technology made work and family time clash. She notes that while theoretically "neutral with respect to promoting access to individuals across time and space," they are normally used in ways that increase access (2005). However, her study also found that different types of technology had different effects. Computer use was actually pretty neutral, but "persistent communications use ... is significantly linked to increased distress and decreased family satisfaction" (Chesley 2005). Although it's certainly true that the excessive use of technology could have a negative effect on family relationships with one another, research seems to suggest that this negative effect is smaller than many people think it is. Additionally, there are some cases where technology use is unarguably good, such as when families are not living near one another. Based on the findings from the studies used in this essay, the general consensus seems to be that technology, when used wisely, can still coexist with a traditional face-to-face family. Parents do need to step into a position of authority and work to stop excessive technology use by their children, but they should also remember that just because the child is not talking to them, it does not mean they are not being social in other ways, with other people. Additionally, parents need to ration their own internet use as well as their children's, and make their children see the technology world and the real world as being of equal importance. Ultimately, popular media seems to over-state the drawbacks of technology. Even though this is the case, technology is probably here to stay. Instead of trying to find ways to exist completely without technology, which will only become harder to do, I think it is much more beneficial for families to figure out how to fit it into their regular everyday lives in ways that will bring them closer together instead of drawing them further apart. While taking occasional breaks from technology is definitely important, there are also ways families can use technology to bond. Much like gathering around the television or radio, families can use the Internet and newer technologies to share experiences and connect with one another. At first, I was expecting to find a lot of articles about how technology was destroying normal family life. I found what I was looking for pretty quickly with the popular articles, but was surprised that not all of them were entirely doom and gloom. Still, I was probably influenced less by them because of their sensational titles than I might otherwise have been. They were also, for the most part, not very well backed up, and a few were no more than opinions of the authors seemingly without any particular reason. The scholarly resources, on the other hand, were very well organized and tended to have a lot of resources, or even be studies that the authors did themselves. Because of this, and because they did not sensationalize the topic like the popular articles, I was influenced a lot more by them when coming to my decision on how technology is affecting families. The interesting thing about this assignment was that I learned more about how to do similar assignments than I learned about the topic that I actually researched. I think this had to do with the part of the assignment which asked us to asses that, and so I was paying more attention to it than I might normally have been. The differences in scholarly and popular articles are a lot more clear to me now than they were before I started researching about families and technology. Popular articles seem to be more interested in making people read what they have to say than they do in being necessarily accurate, or using research to back up their arguments. Scholarly work, on the other hand, makes heavy use of outside sources and research. Because of this, I tended to rely more on the conclusions it reached. Regardless of how I reached my conclusions, they remain the same. I tend to agree with Chesley that technology is essentially neutral. Additionally, the scholarly and popular articles all argued, in different ways, that the technology itself was not the problem, but just how people use it. Families need to decide how they want technology to impact their lives instead of just taking a passive role and letting it use them. With a bit of planning and forethought, technology can be used to bring people together, not to tear them apart. References Bouffard, S. (2008, July). Tapping into technology: The role of the Internet in family-school communication. Family Involvement Research Digests. Retrieved from http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/tapping-into-technology-the-role-of-the-internet-in-family-school-communication. Burns, E. (2006, September 26). Technology brings family 2.0 closer. Clickz. Retrieved from http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1706933/technology-brings-family-closer. Chseley, N. (2005). Blurring boundaries? Linking technology use, spillover, individual distress, and family satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67. Retrieved from https://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/sociology/faculty/pdf/upload/Chesley-Blurred-Boundaries.pdf. Chesley, N. and Johnson, B.E. (2010, June). Information and communication technology, work, and family. Work and family encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/encyclopedia_entry.php?id=17210&area=All. English-Lueck, J.A. (1998, June 19). Technology and social change: The effects on family and community. Proceedings from COSSA Congressional Seminar. Retrieved from http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/anthropology/svcp/SVCPcosa.html. Small, G. (2009, June 19). Is technology fracturing your family? New technology affects our lives and our brains. [Web log]. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-bootcamp/200906/is-technology-fracturing-your-family. Stone, B. (2009, August 29). Breakfast can wait. The day's first stop is online. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/technology/10morning.html?_r=1&ref=business. Wollman, D. (2009, March 24). Is technology tearing family life apart? Laptop Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/is-technology-tearing-apart-family-life.aspx#axzz13IIaPgfl. Read More