Impact of Technology on the Family

 
One of the first things that come to mind when discussing technology and its affect on families would have to be the lack of personal interaction involved. Now some who read this are probably shouting “we are connected more than ever before,” and they would be correct. However, this connectedness seems to be mostly illusion. Follow the argument for a minute or two before writing it off. Most people under a certain age, that we will not determine here but are more than likely under the age of 40 years old, spend vast amounts of time texting. Texting has almost become the primary way many families communicate on a daily basis. The interaction problems that texting introduces begins with no eye contact. If a child is texting a parent it is often very easy for the child to omit important details (inherent in texting) that could very well influence an important parental decision. For example, if child A tells a parent, via text, that a teacher has wronged them in some way, how would the parent judge the veracity of the claim before stomping into the school to confront the teacher? Does the parent take everything the child tells them as the absolute truth? If they do, they are probably not living in reality. Can a parent discern if their child is being truthful by observing eye contact when having a face to face conversation about that same teacher? Most often the answer should be yes they can. What about Facebook? If my wife and I are having a disagreement about a family issue, and one of us vents our frustration in a Facebook post, will it have a positive or negative effect on the outcome of the disagreement? The answer should be obvious. With the introduction of the World Wide Web everyone seemed to jump on the ideas that the world would be soon be one big family. However, due to the individualistic nature of the new technological means of communication, people do not physically interact like they used to. Example two, picture a mother in the kitchen texting a child in the next room to remind them to do their homework. Sounds absurd, but this type of communication happens every day. I believe this contributes to the further disconnection between family members, and ultimately the breakdown of important family relations.

There are many aspects of technology that really introduce more questions than answers. If I were to say that I believe technology has negatively affected living in the moment, would you agree or disagree? Think about standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon (only for short time because you are on a tour), and you hold your phone and enter a Facebook message about where you are, but you do not fully engage yourself in the true beauty and magnificence of the moment. Did you really enjoy the experience? Did you learn anything while standing there? Was there a life-lesson you missed because technology had your attention? Who knows the answers? Hang on though, it is not all doom and gloom when we discuss technology. These are negative scenarios about the impact of technology, but technology can also serve as a way to convey images and thoughts to family members that are not close.

Living in the most mobile society the world has ever seen has presented us with challenges that many of prior generations did not face. Families are often spread out due to jobs, military service, school, marriage, and many other reasons. Technology has provided a way to send photographs virtually the very second a baby is born from parents to grandparents who may live thousands of miles away. So in this respect, technology can help families stay closer than they otherwise would.

Managing Stress

My family of origin, and handling stress probably should not be discussed within the same writing. Growing up, stress was often handled in strange ways. At least they seemed strange to me at the time. We always used the bottle-it-up, bottle-it-up, bottle-it-up, and then explode method for handling stress. It was just this plain and simple. There were no real complex dynamics at play. We just all kept our focus on the tasks at hand, and prayed nobody blew a fuse. The lasting affects have proven to be quite a source of consternation as time has gone by. Stress creeps in most often during transitions in life, structure changes within the family and on the job, and many times from trying too much to conform or trying too much to be unique as a person or family. I tend to bottle up stress and work it out through isolating myself, and then either doing physical work or just vegging’ out while watching mind numbing television programs. I know both are inferior ways to handle stress, and since embarking on the psychology journey I had endeavored to rectify the situation by handling stressors as they arise. 

 

TJ