in face-to-face experiences. “Research from the Pew Center has shown that active social networkers tend to have more friends and support and be more involved with their com- munities and families,” Rainie main- tains, while cautionary studies from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggest that kids unhealthily obsessed with media tend to have lower grades and get into trouble at school.
Overall, according to a 2011 study by the Barna Group, a Ventura, Califor- nia, research firm, 32 percent of parents and 47 percent of teens say technology has made their family life better, while 18 percent of parents and 6 percent of teens say it has worsened, because the news is not all good.
Consider how, instead of sitting down to watch a show together, family members often are in a room or vehicle watching their own show on their own tiny screen.
“People miss social moments around them because they are com- municating with the network inside the screen, rather than the world immedi- ately surrounding them,” says Rainie. (On the flip side, Rainie notes, families often share those moments with each other, too, like a funny YouTube video or a picture on Facebook.) Rosen cautions that the smart phone could be a pivotal game-changer if consumers aren’t careful. “We are al- ready finding that most people under the age of 40 check their phones every 15 minutes or less, and if they can’t, they become highly anxious. Their whole social world appears channeled through this device, and that is worrisome.”
Both Rosen and Rainie stress that the key to making any technology a pos- itive for family dynamics is to set rules at the outset and know when to unplug. Here are some guidelines to consider. Cell phones. Everyone can check their phone messages before dinner and then power it down while the family is eating. Don’t use phones in bed, or in the hour before sleeping, which can be particularly detrimental to a teen’s rest, Rosen’s research shows. Facebook. “When your child says, ‘All of my friends are on Facebook and I feel left out,’ that is probably the time to let them join Facebook,” ad- vises Rosen. Reserve the right to look at their page periodically with them. Each parent and child pair can decide if they should “friend” each other, but don’t assume that gives a parent a backstage pass to the child’s personal life. Pew reports that 80 percent of par- ents whose children use social media have friended their child. However, “Insisting that your child friend you on Facebook is often an invitation for them to set up a phantom, or fake page,” notes Rosen.
Smart phones and tablets. Set specific times to ban technology. “As couples, we used to retire to bed at night and watch TV and talk. Now we watch TV, check our phone and play Words with Friends games, and that has taken the place of intimate communica- tion.” It helps to set specific times to check the phone and leave it off for big chunks of time.
Lisa Marshall is a regular contributor to Natural Awakenings.
Personal Media Use Stats
n Kids ages 8 to 18 spend seven hours, 38 minutes per day with media, including video, TV, music and the Internet
n 77 percent of teens own cell phones; 35 percent of adults own a smart phone
n 38 percent of cell phone owners use it during TV commercials
n 13 percent of cell phone owners say they have used their phone to avoid interacting with people
Sources: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project; Kaiser Family Foundation
natural awakenings December 2012 39
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