Welcome to my blog!
In this blog, I’ll share ideas and tips that draw from my knowledge and experience working with families. I’ll discuss the challenges parents face raising kids now in the digital age we’re living in.
As a therapist who once believed that screens disconnect family members from each other, today I see how we can create a world in which screens can bring us closer together, and I invite you to join me.
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Do we fulfill our role as parents? How much value and meaningful insights do we give to our kids? Are we only good for logistics? How can we be helpful and relevant to our children?
In my years in practice, I have heard these questions a lot. Parents seek to reach their children in different ways and at different levels, and not only on a daily basis with routines and chores. Parents are interested in creating a meaningful relationship with their children and have many questions about how to do it.
Since the start of the digital era, (more specifically smartphones)many changes have occurred in communication, focus, attention, and learning from authority figures. But in their inner worlds, children have stayed the same. Developmental stages haven’t changed much, and children and adolescents need their parents, even if they don’t often lift their eyes away from their screens.
The clear lines that used to exist between our thinking, daydreaming, and using our imagination, have now blurred somewhat with when we are active, communicating, and completing our daily projects and tasks.
Parents say that they don’t know where their kids are even when they are sitting with the screen right next to them. Are they listening to their parents and reacting to them or are they just absorbed by the content on the screen, and what they are reading or playing? What are they feeling? How do they process information being “pushed” over social media?
These and other comments led me to think about the role of the parent in the digital world. Is it to be led by technology or to lead them?
The digital era brings less stimulation to develop communication/emotional skills compared with previous generations. These abilities are less developed today because of a reliance on technology. Parents are left to deal with the implications of these effects while also therapists agree that these skills are still needed as part of the development process of the human being .
Parents can be an essential factor to enrich these skills by conversing/talking, playing, interacting with, and educating their children.. For example, a parents might ask themselves if it is okay to turn off their child’s computer or whether they are being too demanding or aggressive, or neglecting their child’s rights. This complexity creates a heavy burden on the parents’ shoulders.
One of my goals is to make it easier for parents to deal with these kinds of conflicts.
I used to be against the use of “screens”, but meeting with Yuval led to a discussion on whether technology and “screens” can improve families’ communication, using big-data to help parents deal with real-life challenges, can technology enhance parenthood, etc.
When Covid struck, Tech induced effects became more severe as stay-at-home policy created more time for kids to be on their screens
I think that, at this stage in my professional and family life, as a father and spouse, I feel confident about using technology to create experiences that enrich my own family life and experiences, and hope to help you to reach this too.
With regards,
Nadav.