Technology And Family

Superior Essays
Technology and today’s modern family. Technology maintains a significant role in how we do things every day. The large volume of uses for technology these days is overwhelming, but using technology has become required to function in today’s modern society. Technology provides a vital function in today’s family culture, from entertainment to schoolwork and work related activities. What are the effects on today’s family dynamic? Can technology actually bring families closer together or can it create segregation and diminish traditional family relationships? A recent survey of parents revealed that it can actually bring families closer together highlighting that “technology facilitates closer relationships rather than pushes families and people apart” (Parent 's Choice Blog). “The report also observes that, ‘Relationships may not look exactly as they once did, but reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated…technology is more of a connective force than one that tears us apart”’ (Parent 's Choice Blog). Living within a large family myself, I can say that we all use technology and remain close, often times sharing antic dotes and personal experiences captured with a phone or device. Moreover, I love seeing the crazy things my children come up with while snapping a photo in the moment with their close friends. They enhance it with some comical music or video effect, allowing us all to share a laugh together. I believe technology has improved the family dynamic today due to the fact technology allows closer family relationships, more advanced learning opportunities and enriches creative thought. I have recently questioned if parents could maintain close relationships with their children in today’s technology soaked world? I have wondered what the effects are on our family while being plugged in more often than not. I eagerly began gathering information to present my case to refute technology as a father in today’s technologically swamped society. I believed I would be able to quickly paint the picture that technology is somehow ruining our family lives, what I found was to the contrary. I realized during my research that my family enjoys technology and many times uses it as a medium to begin a dialogue or share a humorous story, video or image. I found that parents are often times heavily engaged in technology, just like today’s generation of children. Obviously how your family uses technology is directly related to the outcome produced, due to the fact that children are susceptible to the influences of the world around them. My family chooses to use technology to keep in touch and share our individual experiences together. Technology currently allows my family to maintain a close relationship by saving us time and effort. …show more content…
Enrolled in club sports, my children and I spend much of our time traveling to play hockey or soccer tournaments all around Arizona. We use our family group calendar application to keep all of our engagements visible and under control, allowing more time to focus on the things that matter. I can complete my banking, shopping and schoolwork in shorter times than I ever thought possible. The use of technology allows all of us to save time and spend our time doing the things we love, together. We enjoy the viral video of the day together, many times bringing us all to tears with laughter. We are able to share our experiences through the use modern technological devices, distributing pictures and videos to each other. My children have a close relationship with a cousin who lives in the Phoenix area given that technology allows it. They interact on a daily basis by sending funny links and tagging each other in like interest photos and social posts. When I was young, I had to bridge the distance gap through travel to interact with my cousins. Consequently, I hardly knew them due to the fact that we were hardly able to speak with each other. Today our ability to bridge the gaps of time and absence can be overcome to a certain degree through the use of modern technology, allowing closer family relationships than in past generations. Technology can promote advanced, accelerated learning and intelligence for schoolwork or any chosen topic. My generation did not have the benefits of the internet. Furthermore, the schoolwork I was assigned was delivered from a physical book and was therefore lacking the quality of

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    “We tend to lack the close, supportive relationships that people in former generations enjoyed” stated Patetic. Perry Patetic in his passage , Fast-Moving Society, argues that the new advances in mobile technology make it easy to move and destroy relationships with the past, friends, and family. The author supports his claim by first explaining that people no longer have the connections with others like we did in the past. Perry continues by saying that the disadvantages outway the advantages in this case. The authors purpose is to persuade people to stay close to those that they care for so that they keep a strong relationship.…

    • 364 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One particular study conducted in 2009 by Elisa Pigeron suggest that the Internet is becoming a medium that facilitates contact with family members and friends. Researchers concluded that “Our media-saturated social worlds influence family relationships and dynamics. Traditional evenings spent together eating around the family table and telling stories are now long gone,” (2009, p. 56). Although technology can be seen as having a detrimental effect on the family developmental values, it has the potential to bring people together closer than ever before. Pigeron argues in her analysis, “Without boundaries of time and place, features of technological devices allow individuals to foster familial bonds and relationships by creating the perpetual ability to connect with others”.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People would rather watch others on t.v than spend quality time with family. The author was warning today’s society against letting technology become a necessity to…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The division of families by technology shows itself in ways like hindering a child’s ability to communicate with a parent, or giving them freedom from a…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nicholas Carr vs Kevin Kelly Imagine a world where the internet, electronic devices, smartphones, or any type of technology that you have ever known, did not exist. How could you live without these tools? Technology has been innovating society for the past centuries. People all around the world have been benefited by the new products that technology has to offer. It is almost impossible to imagine a society without technology.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The way the author has put forth a great insight using such an ordinary case is admirable. Besides the technological aspect, “significantly higher levels of family loneliness” according to the Australian study referred to in the article is also a compelling argument as it is corresponds to today’s lifestyle. With our lifestyles becoming busier, we often forget to spend some quality time with our loved ones. Humans are emotional beings.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As we have developed as a society or civilization overtime, we have become more and more reliant on technology. Humorist David Sedaris, author of several collections of personal essays, and stories describes his experience with a neighboring family in “Us and Them” and how they did not have a television set. Sedaris recounts how they acted like an actual family and enjoyed spending time with one another. Sedaris provides an overarching theme that makes us all look at ourselves and how we revolve our lives around technology. Through the use of anecdotes and irony, a humorous tone, and organization of the essay, Sedaris conveys his message that technology has made us less of families and made us more greedy and anti social.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Being able to text, email, Twitter, Facebook, SnapChat and do the things we would normally do in person has created another sense of environment.. The high advanced technology that we have access to, we can communicate with our loved ones living across the world and closest to us. Yet, technology seems to be becoming part of people’s everyday life that when we share a moment or thought, through a device everything else around us seems to minimize. As technology continues to be part of one’s everyday life certain moments can be missed, when technology is in use such as, work related, and family moments. Even writing a message online or text can be affected when a device is used.…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Distance relationships, even those tied by blood, can be difficult to maintain and cultivate (Bangerter & Waldron, 2014). Before the internet proliferated into our everyday lives, the family communicated mostly through letters and the occasional phone call. These communication methods were few and far between. Even now with Facebook, Skype, etc., the family barely communicates. This is one unwritten guideline; it is ok this way, but if one calls or messages the other, it is as if they have had no break in communication.…

    • 2178 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    The evolution of technology has brought many positives in today’s world, although when there is good, evil always follows it. Gary Colombo writes “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” and talks about how we connect to people with our beliefs and views, how college will give us obstacles and we will grow as individuals, and lastly, about our identities and how our culture can affect how we relate to others. Sherry Turkle “Growing up Tethered” says mostly negative things about technology and how we must be careful attending events or posting things about a certain topic that can destroy a relationship between two people because of having less privacy. Independence is not being taught to kids in today's world because of the connectivity…

    • 1572 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this ever changing world, individuals are presented with the choice to accept or deny change, but either way life continues on. Past generations lived through several kinds of change such as war, economic struggle, civil rights movements, and so much more. The most significant and recent change of this generation is the impressive advancements in technology. For the most part, the world has transformed into a cyber-social culture. Whether the use of it may be for entertainment, business, or socialization, technology has become a personal attachment to most people.…

    • 1417 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology is now used to separate us from each other and it disconnects from our human nature to understand the reality of family and friendship, but it sometimes can be an effective way to bring us together. Modern technology mostly tear families or friends apart because it will cause you to forget or ignore them in a long period of time. Most people use technology as a way to disregard each other. As a matter of fact people of all ages become inattentive individuals because of technology.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As a result, data about its effect on children in this new community is always being concluded. One aspect that has stayed consistent throughout these drastic advancements in technology, is the negative side effects technology has on the development of children. Technology is found to lower interactions between caregivers and their children, which is a necessary component that allows a child to have confidence to explore the world and develop to their full mental capacity. Also, technology affects the physical development of children negatively as well. Not only does it increase the risk of obesity, but it can cause learning disabilities, sleep disorders, and stress.…

    • 1808 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some view the idea of technology helping children as absurd, but the fact of the matter is technology has helped improve the lives of children. Thanks to the invention of phones, communication is easier. Now anyone is just a few texts away. Friends can meet up easily, mother's must not worry where her child is, and classmates can easily become friends. Equally beneficial, technology also provides entertainment.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology And Culture

    • 1111 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Culture and technology play a huge role in the world today. Culture and Technology are continually co-evolving in a dynamic relationship. Technology is developed based on a cultural contexts. The cultural context affects the way the technology is adopted and the way it is used. Technology has the ability change a culture and it can impact each culture differently.…

    • 1111 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays