Digital technology in the context of the family
On May 6, 2022, the Edmonds Youth Education Centre welcomed over 30 parents and community members for an interactive workshop about digital technology in the context of the family. The workshop explored the positive and negative impacts of digital technology on family well-being, and the education of young people. It was sponsored and promoted by the Burnaby Festival of Learning.
The idea for this workshop emerged from numerous conversations with parents in the community over the last few years, who raised concerns about their children's use of digital technology. It became apparent that finding positive ways to address these concerns is a need of the entire community. Volunteers with the Edmonds Youth Education Centre began to organize a gathering where parents could analyze the effects of digital tools on individual and collective consciousness by reflecting on their own experience and drawing from the experience of experts and recent research in the field. The workshop and content were developed and continue to evolve in collaboration with the Centre for Digital Tools and Transformation at BCIT.
The workshop, titled “Social Media and the Family”, included a panel of professionals and community members with a diversity of experience related to the topic, including two BCIT faculty members, a representative from Burnaby Family Life, and a local parent. Participants had an opportunity to hear from the panelists about their experience with the positive and negative impacts of digital technology. The space was open for participants to ask their questions to the panel as well as to other participants in the audience - questions such as “How do I avoid picking up my phone first thing in the morning?”
A highlight for many attendees were the breakout groups, where questions such as “What are some habits that are not healthy, and we need to change?”, “How do we develop good habits and disciplines as families?”, and “Are there values or practices from our culture, religion, spiritual background, or community that help reinforce the good habits?”.
Through these conversations, many positive habits were shared, such as making family plans to engage in outdoor or extracurricular activities on a regular basis. Drawing on practices from their culture and religion, some participants shared the importance of togetherness with family, often based around meal-times or community gatherings. Others emphasized the value of service- volunteering for the community as a family emerged as a noble way to draw people out of their social media life.
All present community members, from youth to parents, expressed their appreciation for the workshop and how it allowed the community to share their common concern, and to learn from each other's experiences in order to work towards a solution. It was decided by the participants that in order to truly address the problem, everyone would need some time to apply some of the practices and habits they had discussed, and then to come back and reflect together on what they learned: “Which habits worked? Which were not as effective?”. As a result, the community will come together on a regular basis to continue learning about digital technology and the family, with two more workshops set to take place before the end of the summer.