How the Social Media is Affecting Parenting
The question of the effects of social media on parenting is a controversial one.
There have been studies but these are often contradictory and open to variable interpretations.
So, what follows is an essentially personal view.
The positives
Although people tend to want to go immediately into discussing the negatives, it’s worth acknowledging that there are some benefits too.
Social media now offers parents an incredible wealth of immediately available online help and information. This is unparalleled in history and can potentially be of huge benefit to parents – though it is important to be sure of the authenticity of the source and its qualifications.
It also allows parents to create groups where like-minded others can share their experiences and information.
The negatives
The obvious accusation is that social media encourages parents to spend time doing “other things” rather than spending time with their family and specifically their children.
That might be overlysimplistic and in many cases, unfair. Even so, getting sucked into spending ever more time on social media is now a recognised syndrome and one that might conflict with optimal parenting.
Another concern also touched on under the positives, is that social media can proliferate bad advice and poor parenting practices. This is often difficult to identify but it’s true that following amateur advice on issues such as child health might be highly ill-advised.
A more subtle worry is what effect seeing parents spending huge amounts of time looking at a screen might have on their children.
Kids are great emulators of what they see as their parents’ behaviours. It’s essential for their development to see, interact and play with other human beings. If they see their parents spending lots of time keying into screens rather than talking, it might negatively influence their attitudes towards engagement with others too.
Is there a way forward?
Social media have a major role in our modern society and that is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future.
There is no doubt that using these services responsibly can be challenging for many people, including parents.
In a sense, social media is no different to accessing long-established internet sites via a PC. For around 20 years, parents have for the most part used the Net responsibly and balanced that against their parental duties.
Most will continue to do so, irrespective of the latest social media attractions.
