Parenting through technology

Gracie Smith
MSMU Class of 2027

(11/2023) Society as a whole is nothing like it was 20 years ago. The kids of 20 years ago are faced with a generation that is growing up watching TikTok. The kids of 20 years ago are faced with a generation that has no idea of the importance of respect and responsibility. The next generation is largely being parented by cell phones and iPads instead of learning how to be successful in life. This is a huge problem that needs to be fixed before society crumbles in the hands of technology. The rapid and out-of-hand progression of technology is negatively impacting future generations, and it needs to be changed.

My parents are the reason I am the young woman I am today. From a very young age, my mother and father instilled the importance of respect into my brain. It has always been "yes ma’am," "yes sir," "please," and "thank you." Being humble and kind is a family pillar where I come from. As an 18-year-old, I am now able to see how my actions reflect upon others and in return how their actions reflect on me. Where I work, I am often faced with disrespectful people, and I can personally say that most of my disrespectful customers are the younger generations. They have little to no respect for their elders, but rather a sense of impatience, and furthermore, they misbehave in situations where it is completely inappropriate to do so. If I were as disrespectful as some of the kids I see, my mother would have lost her mind. Firstly, she would have dragged me out of wherever we were no matter how much I fought her. Secondly, she would’ve given me a stern lecture in a way that intimidated me so much I would never do it again. The number of times I see children with cell phones as a result of their behavior makes me question: what is this child learning from this behavior? How is this a solution for children these days, and their relationship with technology?

Additionally, the future generations are learning nothing about responsibility. For example, students today don’t do homework, and they don’t realize the importance of being responsible. I was 16 when I bought my 2015 Jeep Cherokee and could not be prouder of my car. I have been working a steady job since my sophomore year of high school in order to make my monthly car payment. If I’m late, I pay a late fee. If I don’t have the money to make my monthly car payment, then I pick up more hours at work or take money out of my savings. Life never throws you a bone. No matter what happens, you will always have responsibilities and bills to pay. I know what it’s like to be held responsible for something, and now I know what it’s like to pay a late fee because I made my payment on the 2nd and not the 1st. If parents realize the bigger picture and ultimately strive to put their kids in a position to succeed in life, their children will grow up relying on their own hard work and integrity rather than relying on technology that diminishes the idea of responsibility.

As I mentioned before, the future generations are growing up watching TikTok instead of the televised blessings we 2000s kids had: shows such as The Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, Max and Ruby, Bob the Builder, etc. I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was going into high school. Nowadays, I see seven-year-olds with their own phones. When I was seven, I thought it was awesome that I had a Disney Princess CD player that I could listen to KidzBop with. As far as I am concerned, a child should not own a cell phone until middle school at the very least, due to the effect it might have on their social and physical development. While I personally think that is still too young, society is different than it was 20 years ago. When I was in middle school, I was faced with multiple challenges since I did not own a cell phone—challenges that forced me to think out of the box and deepen my cognitive skills. To this day, I do not have TikTok installed on my phone, and I don’t want to install it. Call me old fashioned (hence writing for the newspaper), but there is no value in having TikTok, nor does it actually succeed in entertaining me, while it might for someone else. Why would I watch someone rate their food recipe when I could read a cookbook by Betty Crocker and get much better results? At the end of the day, while it is understandable and useful to use technology to help enforce a child’s behavior, technology should not be used as a constant replacement of parenting. This is because children rely too heavily on what their parents teach them, and learning from a screen more often than learning from their parents can be detrimental to their future.

If technology is going to continue to brainwash our younger generations, then I urge parents to limit screen time as much as possible and spend time with their children. Parents are crucial in a child’s life, and children naturally and beautifully learn so much from them. If society continues in this negative direction ruled over by technology, I pray that my generation is strong enough to take over before technology harms us all and causes irreversible effects. The blatant lack of respect towards others, lack of responsibility, and the constant thirst for technology by younger generations is embarrassing and overall scary. One of the only things that can be changed to prevent our world from being fully consumed by technology is changing the style and motivation that informs parenting. The evolution of technology is inevitable, but parenting is something that will always have the greatest effect on a child and how successful they will be in life.