The Family Circuit Essay -- Technology Computers Entertainment Papers

The Family CircuitA mother is doing laundry duration her infant sleeps soundly in the room upstairs. She is mid-fold when a cry pierces the silence. She looks everywhere at the kid-cam supervise and sees that her child is in his crib. She reads the dials on the side of the monitor Vital Signs normal. Diaper moisture level 0. Minutes since last nutrition 136. Sighing, she reaches over and clicks three buttons, and resumes her work. Upstairs the crib starts to rock gently, as a nearby stereo plays a recording of his mothers voice singing, and a mechanically skillful arm holding a bottle reaches in and holds the bottle for the baby to grasp. The machine retreats and the baby is lulled back into slumber without his mother having to move an in or touch him.The scenario may seem exaggeratedunlikely in our own time, yet not unforeseeable in the future. Our era has turn over so obsessed with technology and its time-saving wonders that quality time itself is taking a backseat to effici ency, destroying what is essentially the human experience. Time used to be the feature by which a familys strength was measured the more time you spent with your children, the nigher you were. Families once gathered around a dinner table in talkative interaction. But now dinner conversation is being hush up as technology takes a permanent seat at the American familys dinner table.There is no age or gender root excluded from the target practice of the technology market. Everyone from infants to grandparents is not only involved, but cognitive content to the increasing dependency on technology to keep family life caterpillar track smoothly. The once low-cost quality family time has given way to a thousand-dollar cycle of expenses to keep every member of the family in touch and up... ... newborn York Times. February 10, 2001.Centerwall, B. S. Exposure to television as a cause of violence. Public communion as Behavior. Academic Press, Inc., 1999. 21-58.Guernsey, Lisa. Toy story, looking for lessons. Do multimedia system playthings teach or do they just pacify nervous parents? virgin York Times. January 3, 2002.Malley, Michael. Re-engineering Americas leisure time. Hotel & Motel Management. August 11, 1997.Sneed, C., and Runco, M. A. The beliefs adults and children hold about television and video games. The diary of Psychology vol. 126 n. 3, 273-84.www.apa.org/monitor/aug98/tech.htmlwww.earthlink.net/esmejake/psycho.htmlwww.standford.edu/dept/report/news/february16/internetsurvey-216.htmlwww.colby.edu/personal/k/kbmacdon/bad.htmwww.consumerreports.comwww.fisherprice.comwww.census.govwww.wherify.com