Your Smart Device is Making You Weird: Family Norms

joebowman.scienceblog.com – Like clockwork, new devices and technology come along to enhance and enrich our lives.  Smart phones and tablets are the laptops and PDA’s of our Age.  Small, usually pocket sized gadgets are more powerful now than ever before.

I was leaving a restaurant recently and I noticed a young family at a table near the door.  As I walked by I glanced over and saw the family happily and most importantly quietly waiting for their server.  The kid wasn’t disruptively playing with utensils testing his parent’s patience, Dad wasn’t breaking his neck to see the game on the various televisions hoisted all over the place, and Mom wasn’t busy wrangling both into having a civilized night out of the house.

The dynamic was alien to me as I am continually surrounded by people who have no problem asking me to put by tablet away during dinner or any other time.  Something that I considered a taboo was being flaunted out in the open.

I pondered the young family as I left the restaurant imagining it was only a matter of time until this was the new norm.  Admittedly, the worst part to me was the kid, utterly enthralled with the game on his device.  Here he was, in his formative years developing and practicing what will undoubtedly become a standard for the rest of his life.  I see this more and more with young children and I am not entirely convinced that this is harmless parenting.

What else is technology changing about our lives that we as a society aren’t even fully aware of yet?

 

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