6.1
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?It is easier for parents to raise children today than it was 50 years ago
Muchhas changed in society in the last 50 years. The advent and proliferation of personalcomputers, the widespread adoption of cell-phones, and the invention of theinternet have all had a visible impact on how parents interact with theirchildren. Not all of the changes have necessarily been positive, but I believethese shifts over the last 50 years have made it easier overall for parents toraise their children.
Technology has probably been the biggestelement to affect the parenting landscapein the last half-century. Personalcomputing, for example, has given parents the ability to teach their childrenin unconventional ways using educational software. I myself remember reinforcingbasic math and science knowledge through poorly-animated, two dimensionalcomputer games in elementary school; nowadays, the software being offered isfar more advanced. In a different vein,cell phones have provided parents with a means of staying in touch with theirchildren over long distances, so parents no longer have to worry as much aboutcontacting their children during emergencies. And finally, the internet givesparents a powerful set of tools on both the education and communication fronts:a wealth of information—on not only educational topics for children, butalso child-rearing advice for parents—available atone's fingertips, as well as various options for maintaining contact
As hinted at above, the vast troves ofparenting knowledge available today—as well as just better general parentalawareness—also help make parenting easier in the 21st century. Developmentalpsychology has made great strides in understanding the mental processes of childrenas they grow, and many of those scientific theories have trickled down intosociety to form the basis of a lot of common sense advice—like for example,that parents should try to strike a balance between guiding children andletting them be independent, and between being affectionate and being stern.But even if one could not intuit such theories, there are literally thousandsof books written on the subject of parenting and likely many thousands moreworth of articles on the internet. Thesetake much of the guesswork out of the messy ordeal of raising a child.
This abundance of technology andinformation can be somewhat of a double edged sword, of course. For one thing, parents must now monitortheir children's usage of all this new technology—computers, cell phones, andthe internet can easily become time-wasting distractions or evenlife-threatening dangers. For another thing, parents might feel overwhelmed byhow much parenting information if available now—though most theories probablyagree on the broad strokes, there are many competing schools of thought thatdiffer on the exact details of how to best raise children. As all these thingsbecome more and more embedded in our daily lives, however, parents should findthat navigating these potential difficulties becomes second nature.
Overall, I believe the changes have beenfor the better. Though many new challenges and obstacles have arisen as well,the tools parents have gained have made raising children an easier task than 50years ago
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