DO CELLULAR TELEPHONES CAUSE FAMILIES TO DRIFT APART

STUDENT NO: 51035219
ENG1511
ASSIGNMENT NO 01
UNIQUE NO: 646181
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

DO CELLULAR TELEPHONES CAUSE FAMILIES TO DRIFT APART?

In this essay I will discuss if whether the use of cellular telephones cause families to drift apart or not, my reasons to support my argument. Firstly I will discuss the impact the mobile technology has on our lives, how and why and also point of view on possible solution that could make this mobile technology to bring families together or to avoid this impact among them.
Technology has brought changes in our lives. It has become part of our daily life, some people cannot end a day without using mobile telephones, connecting with their friends, colleagues and families. Cellular telephones are one of the mobile technologies that connect us with those who are far away from us. The way of communicating with one another has become more advanced in way that we no longer talk face to face much. This has reduced visitation among friends and families.
Cellular telephones cause families to drift apart. Many people spend hours and hours on their cellular telephones having conversation, they chat through social media like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp whereby this should be occurring through face to face among families. Children are no longer paying their full attention on parents or discussing issues that they encounter in life with their parents but they do these with their friends over cellular telephones or they look for solutions on the internet. Even parents use these social media to discuss issues and also having conversation using these mobile telephones. The communication between children and parents is affected by this technology.
According to the author of The Power of Prime blog explain that nowhere is the impact of popular culture and technology on children's relationships more noticeable than in families. Both influences have contributed to a growing divide between the traditional roles that children and their parents play while, at the same time, blurring those same lines between parents and children. (Jim Taylor, 2013).
He further explain that this divide has grown due to the increase use of technology among children in several ways. First, children's absorption in technology, from texting which means sending each other messages to playing video games, does by their very nature limit their availability to communicate with their parents (Jim Taylor, 2013). The children who grow up like this are less likely to listen to their parents or engage in face to face conversation. Parents won't spend time with them because after they played games the go to their rooms to sleep as some may say, while after they get to their rooms they chat through WhatsApp until it is late. This kind of children are those that when a parent tries to put them in order, if they do not want to listen to what their parent is saying to them, they insert the headphones in their ears to avoid what a parent is telling them or even pretend of listening to them. This can be very frustrating to parents which can cause tension between a parent and a child. (Jim Taylor, 2013).
Parents can struggle to gain proficiency and comfort with the new technology that their digital-native children have already mastered. This divergence in competence in such an important area of children's lives makes it more difficult for parents to assume the role teacher and guide in their children's use of technology. Due to parents' anxiety or apprehension about the use of technology, they may be unwilling to assert themselves in their children's technological lives. Because of their children sense of superiority and lack of respect for parents' authority in the matters, children may be unwilling to listen to their parents' attempts to guide or limit their use of technology (Jim Taylor, 2013).
The availability and affordability of cellular telephones has given the children the freedom to have them even when their parents did not buy them one or if they refuse to let them use them. In the previous generations, if children wanted to in touch with a friend, they had to call them on the home phone which might be answered by a parent. Thus, parents had the opportunity to monitor and act as gatekeepers for their children's social lives (Jim Taylor, 2013).
This nowadays if a child cellular telephones rings, instead of answering it near the parents, the child will move to their room or if as a concerned parent you try to find out who your child was talking by going through their cellular telephones, you might find they that they are locked, they ask you to enter a security code. This cause a loss of connection between families. This does not only occur among children and their parents but also among other relationships between married and unmarried people. Cellular telephones cause jealousy, lies and cheating among people who are in love. These may cause insecurities in relationships.
According to Carlson Jon (1997: 31-32), the rules of living are being transformed by technology. The pace of life has been speeded up beyond recognition. No one sleeps any more. There are just too many options. People are interested in being part of the technological and corresponding knowledge explosion that they are living in abstract world of television, e-mail, internet and chat rooms which some might be sexual. We are minimizing our direct face to face contacts with people and living in a technological brave new world.
For cellular telephones to longer take over our time of spending with our loved ones, we must limit the use of it. Use it where is most importantly needed. Children need to be taught in their early age that this time is family time and the other times the child can enjoy doing what makes them happy but teach them not to rely much on mobile technology even though they may have access to it when they are at school or playgrounds.
For children to start listening to their children and spending time with their parents they must not be given cellular phones when there is no need to as there is no need to give a primary school child a cellular telephones. If the child wants to connect with friends he/she can do that by meeting with his friends. If they want to play games there are games that are being sold that families can play them together.
REFERENCE
Taylor, J (2013). Is Technology Creating a Family Divide? [Blog]. Available at http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201303/is-technology-creating-family-divide.
Carlson, J (1997). The Influence of Technology on Families. 6th International Counseling Conference – Counseling in 21 Century, Beijing, China.