HYDERABAD: As technology slowly seeps into every part of our life, relationships have undergone a change as well. Parenting, in particular has become more challenging with children giving more weightage to their peers. We ask a few individuals why there is a sudden breakdown in the parent-child relationship
It’s really sad to see the present generation this way. In my childhood, happiness was playing with my father, talking and spending most of my time with my mother, listening to my grandmother’s stories and her experiences in life and fighting with my sibling. But it’s really sad to see that today when I look back I just have few beautiful memories with four grandchildren. What makes it even more sad is that they don’t have time for their parents and me as well. I just hope that the future generation should at least give it a try to experience the real life because family is all about staying together not staying away from each other
– Lakshmi, a grandmother
Relationships have lost it’s essence in one way. With improvement in technology, the youth has been highly attracted to it. Spending time with family has decreased even more, most of the youth today give importance to other relationships at college and school over relationships at home. They say it makes them happier. However, there are some teenagers who have a balanced life with things at the right place. It’s not just teenagers who have a busy life, most of the parents today are working and they don’t have ample time for their children. This hinders their relationship so children find other ways of recreation and tend to choose friends over family
– A. Harini Prasad, graduate
Teenagers now-a-days are tied down with work or hooked to social media sites during the little time they should be spending with their families. This is leading to less time being spent interacting with parents. During their teens, I feel children are more influenced by friends in a both negative and positive manner. However, with the kind of exposure the teens have nowadays, most of them I believe are able to distinguish between what is good and bad – by understanding the narrow gap between hobby and habit
– Ram Prasad, a father
The internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it has become a complete substitute for life. Children are living in a virtual world rather than real world. Children are hardly talking or spending time with their family in fact they are hardly seeing each other. Uploading pictures, posting and chatting on social networking sites has taken precedence over spending time with their loved ones. Technology might be the future but it shouldn’t be a substitute for our real life, it should not affect our relationships. I don’t know what our next generation will get up to!
– Subash, CEO, MR Productions
The communication between the parent and child is becoming worse day by day. Every time I try to explain anything to my daughter or give her some advice, she gets upset and storms out of the room. It’s the same with my when I normally talk with him. He gives me a blank stare which shows that he doesn’t listen to me the whole time. Children think parents are old fashioned and that we lecture them a lot but they fail to understand that we have crossed that stage of life and know what is right and what is not
– Sharada, a working mother
Parent on their part should take some time off work to get close with their child. We need to remember that as we grow older they grow older too. Children would want to spend some time with their parents. I suppose technology is killing such interactions these days.
Just like the great scientist Einstein quoted ‘I fear technology will surpass our human interaction’ and I fear the day has already come. Earlier, there were days when the only thing we did was talk to our family, dine and have fun with them which is no longer the case now.
–Krishnakanth, It professional