How cell phones have changed the family environment

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The Modern Family Environment
The family environment has undergone numerous changes and challenges throughout the past few decades. The family environment has been modified as well as disrupted by technological, social and economic changes. These changes have advanced causing many more conveniences to be introduced into the family environment. The original research method used to conduct this examination was a primary surveying technique. A random group of sixty-six people was surveyed and asked to answer a questionnaire on the website Survey Monkey, regarding their use and their family member’s use of cell phones, as well as questions regarding their home environment.
The American dream family has painted in our minds long ago, as the father, mother, son and daughter all living happily in the beautiful house with the white picket fence surrounding the yard. The father was the head of the household and generator of the family’s income (Brown and Stephen 12). The mother’s responsibility was to take care of the home, cook dinner, and focus on the children. It seemed so perfect, maybe a little too perfect. As time has flown by, we have watched the digressions of the American dream family and its environment. This is due to the economic, changes that have occurred thus making it harder for families to survive off of one sole income. This eventually drove women into the workforce environment, requiring more time to be spent out of the home environment.

This caused many drastic changes in both the workforce environment as well as the home environment.
These changes caused parents to work longer hours, which meant leaving their children under the care of others – often having to hire a babysitter, or investing in after school care. This also caused significant upbringing changes for the children in these families. Parents now expect their children to grow up faster and handle more responsibilities around the home. Chores have always been a part of the home environment, but with both parents working, children were expected to be able to assist more with household duties. Technological changes and advancements in our world now as well as the modern home have helped families to adjust to these changes. For example, there are now faster bigger washing machines and dryers, riding lawn mowers with larger decks, microwave dinners to make meal times faster. Communication in the home environment has changed as well. Families used only to have land line phones in the home. The modern family environment now includes yet another new luxury, the cellular phone. This piece of technology has changed how families communicate with each other. There are many ways that the cell phone has increased communication between family members and in other ways, the cell phone has created a disruption in the family environment.
The cellular phone was initially invented in the 1980’s, it was heavy and provided only a few minutes of talk time, but it was much too expensive for the average family to purchase, due to the price being around $4,000.00 per device (Parsons and Carl 80 ). The early 1990’s brought about many changes to the cell phone and the cell phone market. Technological changes made the mobile phone more portable, affordable to purchase, provided the user entertainment by offering a few games (Goodwin 8). The 2000’s re-revolutionized the cellular phone. Mobile phone companies offered a newly designed phone that was less expensive, slim, sleek designs that were edgy and fit in the palm of the user’s hand (Lowe 2). These modernized devices had the capability to get on the internet, providing the user access to all of their desires including, games, social media, shopping, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other options (Goodwin 6). Cellular providers also started offering their users and their families, the family plan, where everyone in their family could afford a cell phone and the network service costs (Goodwin 2). It significantly increased accessibility for everyone to join the cellular phone network at a reasonable price for all users. Mobile phones and network service costs have different price options ranging from $25 a month up to $125 per month according to individual preferences (Goodwin 3).
The cellular phone industry has provided families many advantages and disadvantages to keeping in close contact with one another throughout the day (Brown and Stephen L 7.). One advantage that cellular phones have created is that it makes it easier to remain in touch with family members all around the world. Parents can easily track their children’s location by Global Positioning System (GPS). They can communicate better by texting or a phone call, creating a better communication environment with their children and vice versa (Lowe 12). But, with these advantages come many disadvantages to having cellular phones in the modern family environment. After polling 66 people at random from co-workers to Facebook contacts, many people have different thoughts on cell phones in the contemporary home environment.
Multitasking has been aided by the introduction of cell phones; cell phones have numerous drawbacks and advantages. Cellphones have changed the way humans relate; it has also changed the traditional family system (Lowe 19). Two decades ago, someone would not be able to talk to his family members while he or she was at a grocery store buying some items. One could not be able to have a business conference while making dinner and at the same time handling a business client while at home and the same moment is trying to take good care of a sick family member. Cell phones have simply made it possible for the 21st-century modern human to multitask.
Families are capable of staying in touch with the aid of cell phones. It is possible for a kid to contact his parent when he misses a ride from tennis practice, it is also possible for a spouse to inform family members that he is stuck in the traffic jam and is, therefore, likely to come late for dinner. It also enables teens to seek permission before going somewhere. The tracking system and GPS that is available in some cell phones makes it easy for a parent to confirm if the teen is where he or she is supposed to be. The global positioning system that most phones have been devised for locating places on earth. People who use phones with GPS are easy to track.
Today’s smartphones such as Apple products performs numerous types of space-age functions, the text messages is the most popular among teens. A 2009 survey pointed out the rising use of text messages among teen and the decline in the calling (Lowe 17). The scenario can be observed from a positive angle; it means parents don’t have to spend on calling, they can only send a text to reach their children’s. Laura Praeger, child psychiatrists, believe that children are Likely to ignore phone calls for the sake of texting a message via phones. It is also possible for teens to send pictures via text messages so as to enable their parents to know their conditions. Mobile phones open a new world for the teens, and for their guardians to monitor them closely. People seem to have different identities, the real identity, and the cyber identity (Skalland 19). Rob Weisskrich a human development expert who has authored several cell phone and family studies believes that parents need to know their children’s face to face friends and they should also know the cyber friends. Cyber friends who come via social media platforms are known to be intimidating. Most of them are bullies. Weisskerich also discovered from his studies that family relationships grew stronger when children used cell phones to seek support and advice from parents.
Sometimes people do not notice these compelling advantages that cell phones have brought to humanity, assuming an individual arrives at a grocery store, then he or she has forgotten the shopping list, the most obvious thing to do in such a circumstance is to call home then have someone read the list or send the items to inform of a text message, before the invention of cell phone such a person would have to walk back home and get the shopping list (Skalland 33). In case of a car breakdown in the middle of a desert, the most honorable thing an individual will do is to call car operators to come and handle his or her car. From a positive perspective, most of the people believed that cell phones had made human life to be more convenient than before.
The nature of family interaction has also changed with the popularization of cell phones. When someone calls another person, he or she is calling the particular individual; maybe he wanted to have a private conversation with one family member. It allows for spontaneity when someone has plans of calling another, there is rarely a busy signal as it was in landline or family landline phones (Pretty, Jules and Hugh Ward 225). On the other hand, children’s self-esteem dropped when their parents used cell phones to check on activities such as how far they are with their homework or when they called to express anger. Positively, better results were recorded when parents were the initiators of phone conversations.
On the downside, cell phones are to blame as the cause of deteriorating family relations. Many parents have the habit of keeping cell phones at reachable places, the behavior tends to affect children in a negative way. Jane Bush Hager while speaking at a developmental pediatrician clinic in Boston, after studying child-parent interaction, concluded that 80 percent of parents or adults used their phones during meals (Skalland 22). The research was conducted in the restaurant. In most cases the behavior affects the relationship between the child and the parent, the parent is always busy to the extent of not being able to hear what the child is saying. When a kid makes a bid, the parent is likely to respond in a delayed manner. Another survey on children revealed that kids are of the opinion that their parents are often busy with their devices. 55 percent of them think that their guardians check their mobile phones too often. Another 31 percent of children feel that their parents value their cell phones more than them. They feel unimportant in case a parent is distracted by his or her phone
By the end of the 20th century, mobile phones had shifted family dynamics. Things appeared to be different as they were. As soon as these devices become readily available, both children and teenagers made it their first form of communication. The new cell phone world has brought numerous challenges to the parents. Before the 1980s most cell phones were not easy to carry, they were bulky and less affordable (Lowe 2). The bulkiness nature of these phones meant they could not be carried further than the car. It made it difficult for every member of the family to own it; they mostly relied on landline phones. The 1990s saw the introduction of pocket-sized and easily affordable cellular phones (Lowe 3). Their low prices and convenience made it easy for everyone to have those including kids. 77 percent of American teens had cell phones in 2010.
Josephine and Mike are an example of a couple who have been putting efforts so as to combat mobile and social media distractions. The couple has three children making thembe more concerned. Michael says that they have established strict rules, one of the rules is that there is no use of cell phone while taking meals. The middle-class family believes that the earlier, the better, therefore they are willing to ensure that their kids remain self-disciplined especially when it comes to the use of cell phone(Lowe 15). Cell phones are responsible for the deteriorating family ties and values. The accessibility to the internet by several varieties of cell phone devices opens doors for good and bad things(Miller, Pavla and Justin 127). Chatting with friends via social media is not a bad thing. The problem comes when it becomes an obsession to the extent that a child may forget to do his or her homework. Parents have the responsibility to regulate the use of cell phones in their homes. Rules such as preventing children from using cell phones unless it is during the weekend could bear fruits. Development of such habits usually turns into addiction thereby making it difficult to restore the best idea is to regulate while still early.
A cell phone is undoubtedly a valuable possession, especially when one is cornered in a challenging situation, or just to stay connected with people when one is away. Somewhere along the way, the high regards that human beings give to these devices have been interrupted. There is a worrying trend that is taking over, and it is readily observable, that is the fact that these devices are gradually taking away both social and family life. When it continues in the same manner, the danger is that the impact on a person and his or her family’s quality of life are far reaching and very significant. A cell phone ruins life in numerous ways, at first, it is addictive, it takes a lot of an individual’s time. People spend a lot of time when looking at LinkedIn, Facebook, taking photos, receiving phone calls and checking emails.
All the functions mentioned above are all useful, it is only that people get hooked and then spend an inconsiderate amount of their time surfing through such devices. It becomes worse when family members decide to keep to their gadgets instead of communicating while inside the house. Children are attention seekers, parents should at times shut their phones or keep them away just to check on their children. Secondly, cell phones lead to the creation of false relationships. It is surprising that people prefer to engage in chatting with individuals who are thousands of miles away, someone whom he or she has never met. He or she spares little or no time to converse verbally with a family member. The cell phone addiction is making it difficult for people to create real relationships. It is also possible that the more time and effort an individual spends in texting and chatting on cell phones, the more it becomes tougher to learn the skills that are necessary for creating a lasting interdependent and loving relationships.
A cell phone is a relationship wrecker, several families have complained that they are drifting apart. The husband spends a lot of time responding to emails while the wife may be on Facebook. In such a case, the children have no option but to watch television. Children are known for the craving of attention (Smyth, Bruce and Lawrie Moloney 12). If parents will not recognize them for their good behaviors, they would rather misbehave to draw attention towards them. Children are also known to model the behavior that their parents portray. If parents seem uncaring, the children are unlikely to do the same, they will not care. Cell phones and other IT gadgets are intruding into people’s private lives. It breaks the boundary that exists between professional and personal boundary. There are some business that requires an individual to be alert 24/7; an individual can be woken up in the middle of the night so as to respond to his or her clients. It destroys the privacy and comfort that are the pillars of any family.
Individuals need to take precautions to ensure cell phones do not break their families. It would be advisable for people to put boundaries in the manner in which they use their cell phones especially when they are at home. Some of the measures that could resolve the situation include, switching phones early in the evening as they come from work and instead have quality time with children. Those who are in 24/7 kind of activities should also learn to regulate the use of their cell phones so that they only respond to emergencies. Stopping an addiction could be one of the most challenging tasks that an individual can ever try to accomplish. Addiction to the internet and social media interaction sites are known to be very addictive (Smyth, Bruce and Lawrie Moloney 10). The only way out to those who are addicted is to exercise self-discipline by following certain principles. It could be advisable for one to shut his phone whenever he gets home from work simply.
Individuals should focus more on building real friends and not searching for online friends. Relying on the internet for friends takes away an individual’s capacity to develop excellent communication skills that are necessary for human’s daily life. True friendship is much better than online friends. People should also put their families first, give them the attention they deserve, and if possible cell phone should only be used outside homes. However, issues such as emergencies should always be responded to without delay.
Works Cited
Brown, Stephen L. et al. “Family Meals And Adolescent Perceptions Of Parent–Child Connectedness.” Journal Of Family Studies, 2016, pp. 1-12. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/13229400.2016.1200115.
Miller, Pavla and Justin Bowd. “Family Time Economies And Democratic Division Of Work.” Journal Of Family Studies, vol 20, no. 2, 2014, pp. 128-147. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.1080/13229400.2014.11082002.
Parsons, Carl L. “Communication Technology As A Means Of Empowerment.” Journal Of Family Studies, vol 3, no. 1, 1997, pp. 67-92. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.5172/jfs.3.1.67.
Pretty, Jules and Hugh Ward. “Social Capital And The Environment.” World Development, vol 29, no. 2, 2001, pp. 209-227. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s0305-750x(00)00098-x.
Skalland, B. and M. Khare. “Geographic Inaccuracy Of Cell Phone Samples And The Effect On Telephone Survey Bias, Variance, And Cost.” Journal Of Survey Statistics And Methodology, vol 1, no. 1, 2013, pp. 45-65. Oxford University Press (OUP), doi:10.1093/jssam/smt001.
Smyth, Bruce and Lawrie Moloney. “Changes In Patterns Of Post-Separation Parenting Over Time: A Brief Review.” Journal Of Family Studies, vol 14, no. 1, 2008, pp. 7-22. Informa UK Limited, doi:10.5172/jfs.327.14.1.7.
Lowe, Sandra. “Addictive Personality And Cell Phone Usage.” SSRN Electronic Journal, Elsevier BV, doi:10.2139/ssrn.2005102.