Family Time vs. Computer Time???
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:00
Spending time as a family has been proven to be significant in the development of a child’s self esteem, worldview, and social skills. The importance that parent’s place on interaction as a family will make a difference in several key areas of a child’s perspective of themselves and their world. As parents we often invest countless hours and significant amounts of money in our child’s pursuit of sports, dance, drama, and other extracurricular activities. One area that may often get overlooked in this busyness is the amount of face-to-face interaction we have as a family.
The Annenberg Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California has recently reported that 28 percent of Americans it interviewed in 2008 said they have been spending less time with members of their households. That’s nearly triple the 11 percent who said that in 2006.
Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said people report spending less time with family members just as social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are booming, along with the importance people place on them.
What does this information mean to the family? Are we allowing the computer and internet social networks to dramatically alter the time we spend together? Let me encourage all of us to take an honest look at our family’s computer use habits. Because internet activity is an individual activity the amount of time invested on the computer can directly impact the amount of time spent together as a family. Questions to ask:
- Are the computers in your home in a public place?
- Do you monitor both your own computer usage and your children’s?
- Are you aware of which social networks your child is accessing?
- Are you active on social networks? How much time are you investing?
- Do you make spending time together as a family a priority?
Please understand that I am not down on internet social networks. I am active on Facebook, Twitter, & CM Connect. These can be a great way to interact with old friends, co-workers, and others. However, like everything else that involves a time investment we must be aware of how much time we invest and what activities are being replaced. The time we invest in face-to-face interaction with our family is critical to the development of our relationships with our children. Make your family #1!
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Jeff Sloan says:
July 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Great post Keith!
Self Esteem says:
January 13th, 2010 at 12:29 am
Thank you so much, there aren’t enough posts on this… keep up the good work