54% of Children Ask Google Before Parents or Teachers
While watching the news this morning the following image came across the screen:
The majority of kids in this survey indicated they went to Google first before asking their parents or teachers.
Very interesting.
I do have concerns about the validity of surveys conducted these days. If I don't know the exact questions that were asked, how they were asked, how they found the people to survey, what kind of training did the people conducting the survey have, etc., then I do not fully accept the survey results. I think it's healthy to be a bit skeptical of surveys.
But moving on, this survey does have a ring of truth to it, doesn't it. Our kids have moved further away from actual, in-person communication and are more and more immersed in the world of devices. Computers, laptops, iPad, iPods, smart phones, X Boxes, you name it. Use of text messaging has gone into the stratosphere with our kids.
It's not important to me that it's 54% of kids 6-15 as I accept the fact that this is a real situation.
But then another piece of "news" was presented. It was from a mom that had emailed the following into the show:
"I often refer my daughters to Google after I give them an answer to their questions. Since I am a mom, and teenagers never believe a word their parents say, it is my 'I told you so' moment when they see in print exactly what I just told them."
The hosts on the news show just went right along accepting that statement from the mom.
Wow. I was blown away. If folks want to agree with the notion that "teenagers never believe a word their parents say," they certainly can. But the mother and/or father that got into that place where they accept that their kids never believe a word they say, that mom and dad allowed that condition to come about.
Yes, there are all kinds of peer pressures our kids deal with, and at times our kids are overly influenced by their peers. But the bottom line is and always will be:
If a parent wants to create an environment where the kids can freely communicate and where trust can move back and forth, the parent will take the time to make this happen.
And they'll persist until they achieve it. Ideally this gets started VERY, VERY early. But it's never too late to bring our kids into a much better state of communication and trust.
I have a few other posts on children that you can review here. The one on disrespectful children is especially helpful.