Comments on: Social and cultural costs of media multitasking http://www.deaneckles.com/blog/176_social-and-cultural-costs-of-media-multitasking/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=social-and-cultural-costs-of-media-multitasking Dean Eckles blogs on people and technology Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:13:23 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Joan Griffin http://www.deaneckles.com/blog/176_social-and-cultural-costs-of-media-multitasking/comment-page-1/#comment-6512 Joan Griffin Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:35:00 +0000 http://www.deaneckles.com/blog/?p=176#comment-6512 Transition or change is always difficult. Younger generations pick up and master new technologies more swiftly than their seniors. My parents complained about answering machines, refusing to use them to leave messages. (They have long since jumped on board.) Other people's parents complained about TV robbing families of interactive time. This is similar. It has been my experience (as parent and teacher) that parents and grandparents who embrace the use of cell phones find they have more interactions with their children and grandchildren, rather than less. The same holds true for email and social networking and whatever comes next. Certainly parents need to establish rules and monitor their children's social interactions, but it all comes down to that delicate balance between too much control and not enough control on the part of the parent. We have all seen kids get into trouble by having too much freedom too soon, but we've also seen kids rebel (straight into trouble) when they had too little freedom. It all comes down to that basic parent-child relationship, with trust and caring established early and maintained through lots of caring interactions... and then being able to trust and let go at the right time. We can't blame everything on "the media" or "technology"... we parents have to take responsibility for the relationships we create with our children. Blaming technology is merely abdicating that responsibility by playing the victim role. Transition or change is always difficult. Younger generations pick up and master new technologies more swiftly than their seniors. My parents complained about answering machines, refusing to use them to leave messages. (They have long since jumped on board.) Other people’s parents complained about TV robbing families of interactive time.

This is similar. It has been my experience (as parent and teacher) that parents and grandparents who embrace the use of cell phones find they have more interactions with their children and grandchildren, rather than less. The same holds true for email and social networking and whatever comes next.

Certainly parents need to establish rules and monitor their children’s social interactions, but it all comes down to that delicate balance between too much control and not enough control on the part of the parent. We have all seen kids get into trouble by having too much freedom too soon, but we’ve also seen kids rebel (straight into trouble) when they had too little freedom.

It all comes down to that basic parent-child relationship, with trust and caring established early and maintained through lots of caring interactions… and then being able to trust and let go at the right time. We can’t blame everything on “the media” or “technology”… we parents have to take responsibility for the relationships we create with our children. Blaming technology is merely abdicating that responsibility by playing the victim role.

]]> By: Dean Eckles http://www.deaneckles.com/blog/176_social-and-cultural-costs-of-media-multitasking/comment-page-1/#comment-6509 Dean Eckles Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:01:56 +0000 http://www.deaneckles.com/blog/?p=176#comment-6509 The <a href="http://multitasking.stanford.edu/memos/Beckwith_MultitaskingMemo.pdf" rel="nofollow">memo</a> for the workshop by <a href="http://multitasking.stanford.edu/participants.html#beckwith" rel="nofollow">Richard Beckwith</a> (Intel) similarly identifies a "moral panic" about media multitasking. Beckwith argues that rather than simply responding to (or fanning the flames of) this panic, we should study how people are able to accomplish this multitasking and how we can design tools and interventions to teach valuable multitasking skills. The memo for the workshop by Richard Beckwith (Intel) similarly identifies a “moral panic” about media multitasking. Beckwith argues that rather than simply responding to (or fanning the flames of) this panic, we should study how people are able to accomplish this multitasking and how we can design tools and interventions to teach valuable multitasking skills.

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