Living with Power

It’s the year 2024 and unless you’ve been amazing at sheltering your kids from technology, chances are they’ve been exposed to, enjoy using or are addicted to electronics. This is seriously no judgement. Of a mom of a teen and pre-teen, I understand how quickly it can get out of hand. In fact, it’s a real time battle in our house right now.

Technology is useful, important and definitely the way the world is going. Our kids are going to surpass our knowledge quickly (if they haven’t already). However. the lack of physical proximity to others and the lack of eye contact and social cues, have without a doubt impacted how our children interact with others.

Even though some games are more social than others, there is still a lack of all of the components of face to face human interaction. Over the years, many teachers have commented that the ability for children to be empathetic has drastically decreased over the years. I’d have to agree. I am no scientist or expert on this but I do have children, have spent my career with children and spend every day with 20 seven and eight year olds. Something is changing and in my opinion it’s the internet. The need to instant gratification in the classroom has dramatically increased, the lack of eye contact, inability to read social cues and lack of a larger perspective mentality are all some of the effects of the internet and technology on our children.

In turn one of the most common result that I have witnessed has manifested itself in friendships. When you are not learning turn taking, delayed gratification, how to read and interpret social cues, it can make it pretty tricky to establish some meaningful friendships. I have noticed that it’s hard for kids to just understand basic interactions at times even though I know they come from loving homes. I notice it in my own children, they will mimic things they hear or they will try to choose technology over real life experiences or human interaction.

I think that kids are inherently kind. They are forgiving, tolerant and want to make people feel good. Sometimes it’s hard to get off of technology because it’s just as hard to find something else to do. I made a challenge list for my own kids and wanted to share it with you. It’s Spring Break and I’m asking them to pick one to integrate in their life. Some of these ideas are more social than others. (I have one child who is a social butterfly and one who is an introvert). If you try any of these or have some ideas of your own, I’d love to hear from you!

Technology Free Activities

1. Listen to or make your own music. Write your own lyrics to a song!
2. Set up an obstacle course in your backyard or park
3. Sign up and train for a 5K race
4. Try a new sport at your local recreation center
5. Learn to cook! Bonus: This is a huge life skill that will come in handy when they are adults as well!
6. Have a Nerf/Paintball competition. This may appeal to those children who enjoy games like Fortnite.
7. Volunteer-Check your local agencies and business for age requirements
8. Get a J O B. This can be anything from mowing lawns, picking up neighbors mail, walking a dog, babysitting or working at a business if they are old enough to do that.

There you have it! Let me know what you think.

-McKenzie