Tech Stress - how you can reduce it
Year 5 to 12 students, parents and teachers
Greater reliance on technology brings greater ease in our lives, but also increases the level of anguish in most of us. Students spending more time behind their screens doing school work keeps them away from the more social setting of schools. For some, this may be a bonus, but most enjoy spending time with their friends. Parents may experience stress from the unfamiliarity of online schooling and a myriad of other perceived threats from technology their children use daily. The knowledge gap between digital natives (grew up with tech) and digital immigrants (born before 1980) can lead to much misunderstanding. This gap persists, even as more and more young parents are digital natives themselves, because of the speed of tech change where every micro generation of kids adopts a new social media app.
What are some tech stressors: bullying, discrimination, outrage, biased views from mis/disinformation, loss of privacy, FOMO, peer pressures, body consciousness, attention addiction, body/mental health issues, online safety issues and the list goes on.
How do we manage this, so we can minimise the amount of stress for all involved, students, parents and teachers?
Take a deep breath and center yourself to ease reactivity, then enter into a conversation.
Educate yourself about relevant technology (Google and you’ll find).
Socialise tech usage. Show your parents what you do online. Explain what is enjoyable about it. Parents give it a try and see their skills.
Balance on- with offline activities.
Discuss these two great conversation points;
How does the tech we use shape our future.
What we share and create online can affect other’s futures.
Question: What is your biggest tech bug and what do you do to reduce it?
Casper Pieters PhD Dip Ed is an author and educator who uses adventure narratives to enliven the ICT curriculum for young people. www.casperpieters.com
