Being Alone Together
today the technology have significantly influenced the world by creating different interactive platforms and devices such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and WhatsApp. Those technologies have a significant impact on the social lives of people and families. On one hand, technology has brought positive impacts by enhancing communication methods. On the other hand, it results in undesirable impacts such as poor face-to-face interaction and interrupted family tie.and even come up a new word “being along togeter”
As I have mentioned above, technology presents families with various progressive advancements that enhance how many family members interact with each other. I believe that the development of technological devices like smartphones, smartwatches, and PCs make it easier for family members to keep in touch amidst their chaotic schedules. These advancements strengthen family bonds as each member knows the whereabouts of other family members and offer parents new avenues to know what their children are up to, increasing the channels available for dialogue with their children. however at the same time the quality of conversations between parents and their children were drop. because they both think that it is more efficient to text or email over face-to-face communication.this situation as same as the word “being alon g together”.it is when family members live together but have no spiritual communication since they are always consumed with electronic devices and have rare physical connections with each other. what i think is that the issue of “being alone together” is a phenomenon that has risen with the continued advancement in technology. in the past amilies had better relationships because they spent a lot of time together and had many shared experiences. For example, people would get home from work, and together they would sit around the dinner table and eat together with everybody physically and mentally present at the table. After this, the family would sit together and watch the same television show. This was also when people spoke about their day, which most family members liked. However, today technology has robbed the family of the time they can spend together since everybody is busy with some content on their social media accounts. this situation also across race and socioeconomic, because almost 58 percent of married families with kids have access to two or more computers and more than one smartphone.
In the article Technology and family Dynamics, Lee set out to study the negative outcomes of children’s use of mobile devices. The article examines the effects of parental self-efficacy, family atmosphere, children’s patterns of mobile use, and parenting methods that facilitate negative outcomes and the development of pathological internet use. TThe target group for the study included 1561 secondary students aged between 12 to 17, from 39 Hong Kong schools and 1233 of their parents over a period of four months, from March to June 2015. While parental limits and expectations are typically well intentioned, the study observed that they may have different results.
Lee propose this most important things is to monitor children effectively without making them feel too monitored. Because of this, most youth unfulfilled in their lives tend to have high chances of using the internet as a communicative tool. The authors of the article suggest the creation of intervention strategies that can be used in managing family conflict and encouraging children to take responsibility for their use of the internet. Consequently, the article shows that parents who monitor how their children use mobile devices do not directly increase the likely hood of negative outcomes. In the end, Lee emphasize the importance of having a conducive environment free from conflict between parents and their children. It also states that parents should promote self-efficacy when monitoring their children’s internet use.