Technology's Impact on Childhood, a Comparison of Past and Present
Technology’s Impact on Childhood, a Comparison of the Past & the Present
The advances of technology in the past fifty years have endangered the future of active childhoods. While these advances have shown as a great benefit to the worlds of business, education and medicine, the impact on family life and communication has put the health and development of our children at risk. Reduced nutritional guidance, outdoor activity and organized family time has been the result of electronic “make-your-life-easier” gadgets while the time “saved” is now spent consuming additional hours of television or internet browsing.
The classic 1963 family module contains a father, a mother, and one or more children (most often at least two). The father, the bread-winner of the household, goes to work five days per week, leaving in the morning after eating a breakfast prepared by his wife, and returning in the evening in time for dinner, again prepared by his wife. Following dinner, the father observes his children playing a game of hockey in the street and gives helpful tips and cheers when due. Afterwards, he tinkers in his workshop or attends to a household repair, before retiring to the living room to read, watch television, or listen to the radio.
The mother, home-maker, rises at dawn to make her family breakfast and prepare the children for school. She spends the day cleaning the house and doing any shopping required for the family. Home in time to greet the children home from school, she makes their afternoon snack and instructs them to complete their homework so that she may check it before she serves dinner. Following dinner, she washes the dishes by hand and instructs the children to entertain themselves while she sews or knits, until it is time for them to bathe and get ready for bed, when she will read to them. The children begin their day with a hearty home-made breakfast before heading off to school, toting their lunch packs filled with sandwiches, soups, fruit and
The advances of technology in the past fifty years have endangered the future of active childhoods. While these advances have shown as a great benefit to the worlds of business, education and medicine, the impact on family life and communication has put the health and development of our children at risk. Reduced nutritional guidance, outdoor activity and organized family time has been the result of electronic “make-your-life-easier” gadgets while the time “saved” is now spent consuming additional hours of television or internet browsing.
The classic 1963 family module contains a father, a mother, and one or more children (most often at least two). The father, the bread-winner of the household, goes to work five days per week, leaving in the morning after eating a breakfast prepared by his wife, and returning in the evening in time for dinner, again prepared by his wife. Following dinner, the father observes his children playing a game of hockey in the street and gives helpful tips and cheers when due. Afterwards, he tinkers in his workshop or attends to a household repair, before retiring to the living room to read, watch television, or listen to the radio.
The mother, home-maker, rises at dawn to make her family breakfast and prepare the children for school. She spends the day cleaning the house and doing any shopping required for the family. Home in time to greet the children home from school, she makes their afternoon snack and instructs them to complete their homework so that she may check it before she serves dinner. Following dinner, she washes the dishes by hand and instructs the children to entertain themselves while she sews or knits, until it is time for them to bathe and get ready for bed, when she will read to them. The children begin their day with a hearty home-made breakfast before heading off to school, toting their lunch packs filled with sandwiches, soups, fruit and
References: Carrier, R. (1985). The Hockey Sweater. New York, NY: Tundra Books Dahl, R. (1975). Danny, Champion of the World. United Kingdom: Jonathan Cape Fitzhugh, L. (1964). Harriet the Spy. New York, NY: Harper & Row White, E.B. (1945). Stuart Little. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers.