Parents Have a Worse Relationship to Tech Than Their Kids
Adults are sacrificing social connection to veg out with their phones, setting a bad example for kids.
Illustration: Ariel Davis for Bloomberg
A decade ago, danah boyd wrote It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (Yale University Press) to “shed light on the complex and fascinating practices of contemporary American youth” navigating the evolving online world. In this Next Chapter, boyd explores the role of parents, who are upset about their kids’ online habits — but also modeling the same or worse behaviors.
Many kids are not OK. Over the past few years, we have seen countless headlines about the mental health challenges young people face. Much ado is made of their relationship with technology. This isn’t the first time there’s been a panic about the role of tech broadly, and social media specifically. When I wrote It’s Complicated, the dominant fears were bullying, predation and addiction.