Danet, Marie

Do the Emerging Technologies Hinder or Sustain Parent-child Relationships? - 2017.


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The present article aims to provide a comprehensive review of the impact of the emerging technologies on parent-child relationships. One can see that these technologies irrupt into the home environment as soon as the child comes into the world, assisting the parents in their child-rearing activities, providing support, screen babysitting or allowing for communication when physically separated from their offspring. However, the use of such technology can be symptomatic of relational difficulties and create real problems as the child becomes dependent on it (at least from their parents’ point of view). As they change notions of presence and absence, these technologies seem to reveal underlying family dynamics. These dynamics, rather than the technologies per se, will play a determinant role in the vicissitudes of family relations in the digital era.