I’m always grateful when I get a phone call from a Huff Post Live assistant producer.  It means my name came up in a database and I get the chance to spend thirty minutes or so speaking with a panel of people I have much in common with and discussing something that I am interested in.  This time, the topic was Parenting In the Digital Age and I have to say of the five or so times I’ve been on the show, this half hour zoomed by.  I won’t repeat all that was discussed and you check it out yourself going to this link, but in a jist Dr. Lynn Schofield Clark published this article on Psychology Today about how families are changing in how they use and interact with technology.

As a blogger, and as my family can certainly attest, I am connected all the time.  They joke around that I spend my day taking pictures and answering emails but that is my job.  I do wonder about how that is affecting my kids, so I do explain to them that I am not playing video games (as they do when they are on their “phone”), I am working.  And working is what allows us to have resources to do all the fun things they like to do.  My two cents in the conversation today was that technology will change dramatically by the time my boys (now 5 and 7) have cell phones and friends to text with.  All I can do is to teach them restraint, self control, politeness and other character qualities I deem important while watching my own behavior and choices with technology.

For me, one of my most interesting takeaways from today’s conversation was that there is a socio-economic factor to this.  Families with higher incomes tend to use less technology/media than lower income families for a variety of reasons for example, if you live in a struggling neighborhood that may not be safe, your children will have less opportunities to play outside.  I understand all that and neither judge nor debate … what I thought was interesting was this: even if these lower income families spend more time in front of the screen they tend to be in front of the screen TOGETHER, watching a movie or engaging in some other sort of entertainment.   While in higher income homes with multiple devices, you may have less screen time in total but you also have less screen time together.  Everyone is on their own device doing their own thing.  Hmmm.  Hadn’t thought about that.

Interesting stuff that has gotten my grey matter going today.

Thank you to Huff Post Live for the opportunity, and to the panelists I shared with: Lynn Schofield Clark, George Estrada, Mary Kay Hoal, Stephanie Covington Armstrong