Zaynab Ansari – Happiness in the Home Q&A Session 1
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses their approach to parenting and how children need to be able to use technology to create imaginative games and learn from it. They emphasize the importance of limiting access to technology for educational purposes and the value of being in the moment to learn and interact with children. The speaker also mentions a photo of a coffee shop that decided to disconnect their Wi Fi and encourage them to talk to each other.
AI: Summary ©
My name is Zainab, and I want to
thank you for forwarding these questions from our
Happiness in the Home forum. There are some
really excellent questions that we didn't get to,
so my goal is to get to these
questions today.
So our first question is a question of
Steve Jobs'
approach to parenting
and his philosophy about technology.
I do actually embrace
the I I wouldn't say no technology, but
limited technology approach with my children. Harkening back
to my own childhood
where,
I really didn't have access to a lot
of technology.
The personal computer
wasn't really that common,
and, my mother limited our access to television.
And I have to say that,
there are advantages of taking that approach.
And I have found that children who have
fairly limited access to technology compared to those
who are perhaps
oversaturated
with devices, that
that first group, that former group, tends to
be more creative,
that those children are able to be a
little bit more self reliant when it comes
to kind of entertaining themselves,
inventing games, and just generally being more imaginative.
Now, technology has its place. I would not
debate that.
Our children need to be able to use
technology, especially as it relates to kind of
like educational projects and homework assignments and the
like. Our children are increasingly using technology to
create kind of an Internet presence
to connect with their friends. But I think
we need to ask ourselves, we need we
need to kinda be able to weigh the
advantages and disadvantages of having access to technology.
You know, the thing is that's challenging for
children is being able to kinda like filter
the technology
to determine what's good use, what's not good
use.
You know, the issue, for example, of cyberbullying
has come up where children
are on social media and essentially they're being
kind of like cyber stalked and harassed by
other children. And that's a disadvantage clearly
of technology and social media. So I think
giving our children the tools to really kind
of filter
the, technology
and the way it's being used and its
implications, that's really important. And I think being
able to unplug and turn things off because
I've noticed now that my children have,
a lot less access, say, to their
to the TV shows they used to watch,
the television in general, they have become so
much more creative
and imaginative.
They're doing all kinds of art projects they
didn't do before. They're inventing all kinds of
games.
And I really love seeing that because, you
know, that is really one of the most
beautiful
aspects of childhood. One of the most I
think one of the strengths of children is
that just give them a few
kind of basic tools or toys and they
can invent these wondrous games and these things
that they do. So I would have to
say I am a proponent
for limiting children's access technology,
especially when they're not really able to filter
that technology and really understand how to use
it in a way that's beneficial.
Now obviously as children as they get older
and as they actually require
access technology, especially for educational purposes,
obviously use your judgement. But,
I do I I would have to say
limit that,
and make sure though that there is something
in its place. So don't just take it
away without unplug. We're all going to turn
off the TV, close our laptops, turn off,
you know, our our iPads, turn off our
phones, and just sit down and just really
talk to each other. You know, it's so
funny.
You know, the irony is that on Facebook
I saw a photo of a coffee shop
that had decided they were going to disconnect
their Wi Fi, and they told customers, you
know, talk sit down and talk to each
other. You know,
I think that the sign outside said talk
to each other, you know. Pretend like you're
talk to your mom. Pretend it's 1991 again
or something. So I think there's a lot
of value
in turning off these devices and just kind
of learning how to be with each other
and be in the moment.