By Mohd Asif Jan, Manzoor Illahie
Today’s world is an information rich world and it has become a necessity for everyone to know about technology. Technology has touched every domain of life and is making human life easier and more joyful. The Internet has contracted the world into a global village. From the wake-up alarm in the morning to the dawn, we are dealing with technology in either one pretext or other, irrespective of age, gender and profession. Now the question here arises how efficiently we should use the different technologies without compromising our real life.
For that purpose, we should know the etiquettes of technology proportionally. We should inculcate the real essence of technology with others as well. Social Media platforms have become a talk of the town, even the illiterate, under aged groups are actively using these platforms. Nowadays, social media has penetrated our lives in such a way that it seems to be part of our real life curriculum. So the responsibility lies on our shoulders that we play an important role in keeping an eye on our children while using different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, Twitter and YouTube.
If we go down the memory lane, parenting style has seen a paradigm shift from baby boomers to generation Z. The more you know your responsibility, the better you will be able in shaping the life of your child. If we go through the flashback of 2023 especially in Kashmir, what didn’t we see in this year: Such as reels on ‘Bheega Bheega Hai Samaa’ song, kashmiri dialogue ‘Su Wattie Ghari’ , ‘Cxe Won Kus-Ammi Kari Trus’ , ‘Own power own rules’ or the recently scam of curative survey and the different Vlogs of our so called Vloggers who call themselves as role models. Even though we have crossed the limits in such a way before going into the washroom, we set up the camera for capturing the scene of entering the washroom and exiting the washroom. We are bearing hands with thieves in their work indirectly by using different social media platforms. Let me put it this way, if a Vlogger visits his/her uncle’s house s/he shoots a Vlog by the title ‘Uncle K Ghar Ki Sair’ and uploads this Vlog on different social media platforms for few likes and comments. After few days, we came to know about a theft incident in the same house(Uncle’s House).If we think out of box, the thieves are not only responsible for the theft but the Vloger is also responsible because he provides a roadmap to thieves in the form of Vlog(Uncle K Ghar Ki Sair) which had paved the way for thieves. Even some intellectuals upload AI morphed pics on different social media platforms for masking their real identity among their social media friends which are limited in number without realizing the fact, the AI app/platform they used in morphing the pics are safe or unsafe. Thousands of photos of Kashmiri girls are available on the web. Now the question arises where they got these photos. This is the question whose answer should know our social media users.
In the above summative assessment, we figure it out that we all have to play a pivotal role if we want to safeguard our society, we have to follow an approach that is known as cyber parenting. Cyber parenting or digital parenting is a concept which tells us the importance of keeping track of your child’s internet usage and following the cyber parenting principles. Needless to mention, we have heard/read about four types of parenting styles- authoritarian (parent driven), authoritative (responsive), permissive (child driven), and uninvolved (neglectful). Moreover, we have heard/read about Dr. Conte’s four Cs of parenting that is care, consistency, choices and consequences that helps in satisfying children’s psychological, physical, social, and intellectual needs and lay solid foundations for mental well-being. But when it comes to digital parenting, Alexandra Samuel, a researcher who conducted research two years ago on digital parenting has given three types of digital parenting: digital enablers, digital limiter and digital mentor. If we talk about digital enablers, we especially (Kashmiri) fall in this category because in this parenting, parents give complete freedom to their children when it comes to access to devices and the internet. Some sort of autonomy is given to children and no supervision of child’s activities is taken into consideration. In other words we can say , let them do what they want to do. Then comes the next type of digital parenting that is digital limiter, if we talk about digital limiter, it resembles authoritarian parenting style. These parents keep their children away from the internet as much as possible and strictly limit screen time. Digital limiters closely monitor the content their children are exposed to. The third type and the last type of cyber parenting is mentor parenting, in this type, parents spend time online with their children, helping them develop their digital skills by experimenting and failing within a controlled environment. Parents provide their children different tools and resources to navigate the online world. Parents act as role models and demonstrate the behaviours that children should model online.
In conclusion, we must say indeed parenting is a difficult task when it comes to cyber parenting- a lot of training and understanding is required along with the adequate time that is to be spent with the children in order to understand them better. Be a regular parent as well as digital parent (Cyber parent). In this ICT era, a parent has to play the role of helicopter parenting style. Just like a helicopter hovers, so do the parents- involve themselves in all aspects of their children’s lives. In this technological driven world, parents have to make a balance between their own technological dependency while guiding their children’s digital behavior.
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
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