Children and digital media: A lecture by Dr. Amy Jordan

Photo source: nbcnews.com

It is obvious today that childhood has dramatically changed with the increasing presence of digital media. This year's Annual Distinguished Lecture presented by the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech featured Dr. Amy Jordan, President of the International Communication Association. Dr. Jordan spoke on the topic of "Digital media use and the experience of childhood in the 21st century,” her area of research.

Dr. Jordan compared her childhood growing up adjacent to a dairy farm in Massachusetts to today's children growing up with devices in hand; digital natives. She compared these young digital natives to herself, what she called a digital immigrant. However, I could only think of my age group at this point: what would I be considered? I am a millennial and was exposed to technology relatively early; however my family didn't own a computer until I was in late elementary school. I was not exposed to my first cell phone (a flip phone at that) until late middle school. I consider myself educated and able to manipulate technology, but it still takes me awhile to fully understand the newest Apple update or computer model. And being what I think of as part-digital native, part-digital immigrant, how will I choose to raise my guaranteed digital native children?

Many adults who are digital immigrants raising digital natives tend to be strict with technology consumption. They are focused on the amount of time digital media consumes in a child's day because these parents were raised differently, spending time outdoors and away from screens. But what about when my generation begins to raise children of our own? We are some of the last generation who grew up only playing with Barbie and other toys and not with smartphones and apps. How will we choose to raise our children? Will we be strict on screen time because it is not how we were raised in early childhood? Or will we allow our children unlimited technology because we were exposed to it while we were still young, even if not at first?

As my age group further enters adulthood, perhaps it will become more apparent whether we are digital natives or digital immigrants by our view of digital media impacting our family structures and the lives of our children.

Dr. Jordan could not say whether the influx of technology and digital media was either good or bad in the lives of children, however she did close with the point that we must accept that it is changing the way adults relate to children and the way children relate to each other.