How does the rapid increase of technology effect the way we spend time with our family? There was a time when family life revolved very little around television, video games and the computer. When sitting around the one TV in the house and watching family programming was the only option. Where you would have no choice but to discuss your day or what your watching with the people around you. However with new technology and so many more forums in which to enjoy them on things have shifted
Most families now have one or more TV’s in the house. Now these products are more affordable then they were even 10 years ago. Multiple TVS, DVD players, Video game consoles and computers are in everyone’s house, they certainly are in mine. How does this change things for the family?
“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 different planes of existence through technology, a scene like this has become an increasingly familiar evening ritual”- Alex Williams New York Times
According to Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project nearly 60 percent of American families have more then 2 computers in their house this number is nearly twice as much as it was in 2004. With that sort of rate of increase what will happen in the next 7 years? All this leads to a great big disconnect between people.
Families are together but not really together. Sitting in a room with another human being not speaking engaged in your own technology does not qualify as interaction. We have become removed from our relationships with our families. The focus has moved to our abilities with how well we use technology not how well we communicate within our homes. Sherry Turkle,a professor of social science and technology at MIT,believes that we are trading our real relationships for ones with technology. She believes we are expecting more from technology then we are from each other.
Turkle thinks we are alone together. She goes on to say we place too much value on our relationships with inanimate objects such as our phones. People will sleep with their blackberries in fear of being out of touch with others while children will fight with a parents iPhone for their attention. Instead of just being able to be with our families we are being distracted.
How do we stop this? Maybe we put down our phones during dinner or set aside time for your kid when they are allowed to play video games. Come out from the veil of reality and live in the real one. Expect your family to want to talk when they get home from work or school, get back to the roots of what it means to be a family.