What is the most essential capacity we need to build with our children today? - Recent interaction with a young friend on parenting essentials got me thinking on this a lot. Most of us love our children a lot and want to also capture every moment on camera - first steps, first day to school, holidays, etc.,
Photographs that were earlier meant to capture and retain special occasions have now become tools to capture daily routine. Obviously, the personal memory combined with need for instant gratification has pushed every sacred private occasion as something to be shared with others for getting instant approval.
The sophistication of the camera, constant chatter of social media, and digital connectivity everywhere are additional facilitators of this need for instant gratification.
It is only -
- 10 years since we got into photo sharing apps online and selfies became a fashionable activity with high definition front cameras.
- less than 10 years since the short videos became a daily consumables in our lives
Yet, ‘‘sharenting’’ has become a common ailment of our society, oblivious to the privacy concerns, predatory behaviour, cyber vulnerability, and other safety implications that we subject them to.
I find an even more damaging trend, the commodification of personal life of our children for consumption and approval by a larger community all the time. To be fair it started with the television ‘‘talent show’’ of the previous era which commodified children in the name of encouraging show of their talent and competition. Every small demonstration of any skill or talent is immediately captured and shared to the widest of audience.
While pandemic forced us to expose children to cameras for online schools and training, many are yet to recover from the same. UN estimates that 79% of the children between the age 15 to 24 were online in 2023 and it has been growing rapidly in recent years, while UNICEF flags the increase of cyber crimes against children during the same period. I find the increasing safety concerns being used by individuals, communities and groups to justify the deployment of cameras everywhere is often mis-placed and unnecessary.
We may reach a point when like children afraid to stay away from lights, there maybe a new generation that is afraid to stay alone without cameras. An emerging premium competency with children is going to be their capacity to function without a camera. I hope as a society we have the courage and the foresight to not victimize the next generation into such a big challenge. Increasing emphasis that all our communication needs to be image centric in professional life seeps into personal life as well, with people losing the capacity altogether in many cases.
- Use camera judiciously in personal spaces
- Develop family gatherings / outings / travels where everyone agrees not to use camera, or better, even phone
- Encourage children to practice their skill or craft for its own benefit alone or with others and not always in front of a camera
- Discuss and allow them to acknowledge the joy they find in practicing the skill by themselves and not necessarily seek approval from others
- Discuss the challenges of the Surveillance-centered world with other parents and create awareness regarding the new vulnerabilities with them as well
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