DQC Week 3 – Families Matter

Lori M. Takeuchi provides an incredibly interesting looking into how parents view and experience the media their children interact with. Takeuchi urges readers to recognize potential for learning from and communicating through digital media. The case studies mentioned in the paper illustrate how children communicate on the web, play with siblings, learn from their parents, teach adults, and learn new skills.

Throughout the paper Takeuchi reminds readers that many parents report a desire for their children to grow up experiencing a childhood similar to their own. Parent express worry over lack of exercise due to digital media use and digital media interfering with healthy development. Ironically, few parents believe that their child spends too much time with digital media.

I think the concerns parents expressed to Takeuchi are very intriguing.  Specifically, that their children should have the same childhood experiences that they remember. Given the pace at which the world of digital media is changing and becoming integrated into our daily lives, I do not think that is realistic. For example, Gabriella’s parents want her to play with her neighbors across the courtyard in their apartment complex because they played outside as children. While I definitely agree that children should go outside and get exercise – I wonder which is closer to the childhood experiences of Gabriela’s parents: playing in a confined courtyard with only the children who live in her complex (because her parents do not feel it is safe for her to leave the apartment complex alone) or the freedom websites like Club Penguin give children to explore unknown spaces and interact with an ever growing number of users? Can digital media create authentic experiences involving freedom, independence, and curiosity?