15 Easy Ways to Effectively Use Technology at Home

The current generation of parents with school-aged children is essentially the pioneers of raising children in the digital age. We are digital immigrants to our digital native children. Most of us were raised in a time when there were no tablets, smartphones, laptops, or even the internet, so there is no body of knowledge, wisdom, or experience to draw on when raising our children in an era when a dazzling array of technologies presents so many challenges and opportunities. This means we’re on our own (pun intended) to sort it all out.

One of the aims of this article is to assist them in developing self-management abilities that will allow you to trust them to make wise technological choices:

Begin having talks about technology with your children as soon as you allow them to touch technology.

To help kids absorb the principles, frame talks regarding their use of technology with language like trust, accountability, self-management, and making good choices wherever feasible (see my earlier post for more detail).

Reinforce the terminology your children are already accustomed to hearing at school to help explain why certain actions are acceptable and others are not. When explaining why you are not allowing children to play certain games, visit certain websites, watch certain movies, or listen to certain songs, use phrases like acceptable and improper.

Establish limits, as well as place, time, and contains limitations on their usage of all gadgets and internet time, but be mindful of doing so through parental controls.

Involve your kid in the process of setting and defining these boundaries and constraints (see number 6).

Develop Technology Agreements that specify the breadth of the boundaries and constraints, and ensure that your children are invested in them by enabling them to develop the papers themselves with your instruction and veto authority. This will make it easier for them to take ownership and accountability.

Ensure that your kid views the usage of any technology in your home as a privilege based on trust, so that they are encouraged to obey the rules.

Consider having separate technology agreements for consumptive vs productive uses of technology, where productive applications have greater freedom or flexibility.

Place all laptops in a communal location where their screens are easily visible. This not only allows you to see what they are doing, but it also allows for valuable dialogues about what they are up to or interested in (see number 12).