How modern technology has changed family life...

I was going to title this blog ‘the effect of modern technology on family life’, but to me the word ‘effect’ seems to have negative connotations in this context; which would be wrong of me to imply because the point of this post isn’t to say if this change is good or bad. Instead it’s to discuss them and talk about both sides of the argument because, as much as the ‘bad side’ seems to dominate, there are people that believe the change technology has made to family life is a good thing and actually improves quality of life.

It’s no secret that the way we consume television in the present day has drastically changed from what it was in the mid/late 1960’s. In fact, it could be argued that the act of actually watching broadcasted TV is coming to an end.
When colour TV’s first came about they only had 4 channels, now not only do we have over 100 channels readily available, we have the option to stream TV shows and films whenever we want to.

In order to really see the change technology is having on TV, we need to look at the numbers:
TV industry revenue in 2016 for the UK was £13.8bn, but in 2017 it went down to £13.7bn. It might not seem like a drastic change, but it has still decreased and when comparing it to the Netflix subscriber count I found that in 2017 they were just under 99 million. But now in 20218 they already have over 130 million - that’s 31 million new people subscribing to the on-demand service within 10 months.
So TV revenue has decreased, but Netflix’s subscriber count has increased… by a lot.

I chose Netflix as an example as it a well known (and clearly well-subscribed to) service. But there are over 100 different services - not just the mainstream ones we all think of. So imagine just how many people are streaming their favourite shows instead of watching them on broadcast TV. In fact, many streaming services go on to produce their own exclusive series to attract more subscribers; for example ‘13 Reasons Why’ on Netflix (which was really good by the way, I would recommend it).

But how has streaming services affected our family life?
Well, before on-demand services you had to actually wait around for the show to be broadcasted - I know right!?
This limitation, and the number of TV’s in a house being usually one, meant that families would have to choose a show and all gather round the TV at a certain time to watch together. This is something that is occurring less and less as we have the freedom to watch what we want when we want. Pair this with the cheap prices of unlimited home wi-fi and capable devices, it’s no wonder families are opting for the on-demand way of life.

This on-demand lifestyle then makes families watch shows when they like as opposed to sitting together to watch something.
The social benefits of watching a show or film as a group is that it sparks conversation and often debates about their views on the show or even topics that the show or film covered. But private viewing of a show or film alone stops these debates and can lead to isolation between groups as they aren’t talking to each other about the media they are consuming.

But it’s not just the way we consume TV shows and films that has changed family life, it’s also what we do for entertainment.
In the good ol’ days families would all sit round the dining table and play a board game, but now children are glued to their gaming consoles in their rooms whilst parents are downstairs cooking dinner.

The point I want to stress though is, your family can still do these things that are considered to be outdated. My family still make time to sit round the TV and watch something together. Whether that be a film, a new series or re-watching a classic. At the moment we are making our way through Gavin and Stacey again. My 14 year old brother and I are constantly shouting ‘what’s occurring’ in a very bad Welsh accent whenever we can!
Occasionally we grab a bottle of wine and sit round to play a board game which is great fun as well.

Even small everyday things like sitting round a table to eat dinner is something my family still does and they act as kind of daily family meetings where we all talk about what we did that day. Activities like that are great for developing communication and conversation skills, something that I think children nowadays lack if I’m being honest.

These small things can have noticeable impacts on your children. I remember at a year 6 parents evening, my teacher at the time turned to my parents and said, “She’s very aware about things going on in the world isn’t she?”
To which my parents told him that we regularly sit around the table and discuss recent news and other things over dinner, he was very impressed and complimented my parents for doing such a thing. That was back in 2010 and it was still impressive to sit round a table and eat dinner as families were already falling out of that habit.
Every time we’re in a restaurant, we can easily hold conversation with each other (or anyone else we are out with) for at least 2 hours whilst we eat, without laying a finger on our phones. Something that is so unheard of in this day and age where kids seem glued to tablets and phones at the dinner table.

So it’s not just in our homes that modern technology changes family life, it’s everywhere and our childhood then affects how we are as adults. There are so many studies on this, check out an article about them here. One of the key things to take from that article is:

"..helping children develop social and emotional skills is one of the most important things we can do to prepare them for a healthy future," Kristin Schubert, program director at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

So, as long as you are developing your child’s emotional and social skills, the use of modern technology in the home may not be changing family life in a bad way or may not have as big of a negative impact as we are led to believe.
Just make time for social activities like eating dinner together or watching something together to ensure you are helping develop their social and emotional skills.

I think it’s important to understand that although the advancement of technology has changed family life, it has also changed the job market. Meaning that new jobs are constantly being created and the space for more businesses to be created is forever growing larger thanks to the new technologies.
So if your kid is a computer whiz now, imagine their potential in this digital age.

People need to look at the bigger picture and be more opened minded about new technologies instead of always assuming it is toxic for them and their families.