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Technology and Interpersonal Communication

Technology, like the cricket android, iPad and blackberry can sometimes bring people closer together, and it can also drive people further apart. That is the dynamic between family relationships and the advance of technology. As the Internet makes the world a smaller place, it can also begin to alienate people from each other. Here is a list of the ways that technology works to affect relationships.

 

1) Parents to Children

When kids are growing up, they tend to want to communicate with their friends more than their parents. Before the Internet, it was difficult for kids to talk to each other all day long. So children had to listen to, and talk with, their parents. With WiFi devices and cellular phones, kids keep in touch with each other all day long. Now it is possible for a child to be in a restaurant with his parents, but never say a word to them or even look at them in lieu of communicating with his friends. It is the wedge that technology drives between parents and children.

 

2) Family and Friends

The very same Internet that can conspire to eliminate communication between parents and children can reunite friends who have not seen each other in years. Middle-aged people are able to find high school friends that have moved hundreds of miles away through social networking websites. Family members that do not talk throughout the year can now stay in touch over the Internet.

 

3) Older Family Members

One of the aspects of family relationships that gets lost in the discussion of technology and people is the alienation of older family members. Not everyone wants to learn to use the Internet, and the older family members that do not use it do not get an email address or a social networking page. As children focus more on communicating through the Internet and handheld devices, these older family members get left behind.

 

The use of technology can be both a curse and a blessing to interpersonal relationships. The ability for younger generations to use technology to limit communication with their parents can be a great reason for parents to become more in tune with technology and the reach of the Internet.

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Relationship Categories

Friends. 

Image via Wikipedia

Relationships are complicated. As complicated as they feel at times there are really only about 5 categories of human relationships. The categories are family, friendship, work, and love.

Family relationships are the foundation for your social interaction with others. It is where the best of our self comes out and the worse of our self. We learn to deal with those older than us. We deal with siblings who know how to make us happy and what button to push to make us get out of control. Then there are the inevitable relatives that come in and out of our lives. It is here we learn to love, hate, negotiate, and manipulate.

Along the way we acquire friend relationships. These emotions teach us to love outside of our family group. The bond shared revolves around either common interests or shared rebellion. Emotions are similar to our feelings in the family group, but at a different level and depth. A friend is outside of our family group so there will be a difference in the structure of their life. We learn to negotiate our life structure with their life structure.

Work relationships happen through our volunteer and organizational activities or our first job. These take us to a different arena. They are not about loving or liking, but about having the ability to cooperate, form teams, and deal with people not of our choosing. It is here we learn the skills of tolerance.

Then there is intimate love of another. Love is different for everyone. These emotions are intense and oscillate from positive to negative in any given moment.

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Communicating With Your Child

As kids get older, they can seem like they are harder to reach. Sometimes a parent-child relationship can get strained because the parent expects too much from the child, or the parent tries too hard to be important in the child’s life. What that parent is missing is that she already is important in the child’s life, she just needs to understand the different ways of reaching a child and establishing a strong parent-child relationship.

 

1) Privacy

One of the “fine lines” in a parent-child relationship is the need to give the child privacy. You need to give your child his space, but you also need to monitor your child’s behavior if he starts acting unusual. Simple acts such as knocking before entering the child’s room and allowing the child to lock the door from time to time can be the first steps to establishing trust between you and your child.

 

2) Responsibility

Children need to understand responsibility at a young age in order to develop respect for it as they get older. Make children understand that doing homework is a serious responsibility, and reinforce that by being available to help your child do homework every night. Allow your child to see you paying bills and running the house to help the child understand the importance of responsibility.

 

3) Talking

Children do not always come out and tell parents when something is bothering them. Developing healthy communication between you and your child starts when the child is very young. The parent needs to take every issue the child has very seriously in order for children to feel as though they can talk to their parents. Remember, the issue is important to the child. Parents need to show genuine interest in their children’s issues when the children are younger in order to establish healthy communication for the rest of the relationship.

 

Communicating with your child is not a puzzle or a game. It is a process that takes years to establish. Once you have established a good rapport with your child, you are on your way to creating an overall healthy relationship.

 

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