Our kids are facing an onslaught of distraction, materialism, shallowness, and inappropriate viewing content— at the same time we are
One of the unique facets of the technology challenge we face is that we are, perhaps for the first time, dealing with a brand-new nisayon while playing on exactly the same field as our kids.
Normally, we go through something ourselves, and then when our kids are dealing with a similar situation, we have the perspective and experience to guide them, or at least to recognize the process. This is true when facing tzniyus challenges, struggles in learning, controlling overwhelming middos, and so on. Of course, the world we grew up in was vastly different from the one in which we’re raising our kids today, but the nisyonos have the same blueprint.
In the world of technology, though, we’re all in this together. Our kids are facing an onslaught of distraction, materialism, shallowness, and inappropriate viewing content — at the same time we are.
When interviewing people for my book TechTalk five years ago, I spoke to a cross section of people from different ages and stages about how they were dealing with technology. And interestingly, in many ways (warning: you won’t like this), the younger generation interviewees actually seemed better equipped to deal with it; they had better tech habits than their parents.
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