Parents & Teachers: Are We Setting The Tech Example?

While on vacation in Florida over break, I came to the realization that kids, teens, and many adults are becoming hopelessly addicted to their phones. I got to hang around two teens for five days and the phone dominated their life. When we went fishing, the phones were out. When we went bowling, the phones were out. When we went to dinner, the phones were out. Now these are great kids and both have wonderful parents who limit the technology use. The problem is they need to check it every five seconds as if the world is ending. I even tested them at dinner to see who could keep their phone away the longest and they only lasted five minutes. 

It isn’t just them but it is all young people who have access to smartphones, iPods, tablets, etc. We are seeing it in commercials, we see it when people are stopped at red lights, and we see it where we shouldn’t see it. Now I teach business & computers and am a huge proponent of using technology for good but it is a matter of knowing when to use it. Maybe we need to come up with a smartphone etiquette curriculum and teach that in schools along with digital citizenship?

I just worry that young people don’t know how to have fun or hold a conversation without an iPhone in their hand. We as a society will never stop technology growth and usage but what we can do as parents and teachers is set the tech example!

Parents and teachers, teach your children when it is acceptable to be on the phone. Set guidelines and rules up for children and stick to them. If you don’t want your son or daughter to have their phone out at the table, don’t do it yourself. If you don’t want your children to text and drive, use Siri voice! Our phones, Facebook, Twitter and everything else are becoming almost, if not as addictive as drugs. Think about that for a second. It is almost as hard to quit Facebook for a month than it is to quit smoking!

Technology is wonderful in so many ways but it can also ruin us as a society. It is changing everything about how we work, live, play, chat, socialize, etc. It is up to us, the parents & teachers, the leaders to show our children what it is like to go outside and play for 30 minutes without Angry Birds. Show them what it is like to go camping in the wilderness. Show them what it is like to explore with the senses. Show them how to build and fix things. We as parents cannot fail our children because if we do, no one in thirty years will know what to do when the satellite goes off…

-RD