In "High-Tech Parenting," Amitai Etzioni insists that good, old-fashioned parenting has been replaced with "tele-parenting" and the new and improved "virtual parenting". That we have adopted rushed cell phone conversations and text message exchanges for actual, REAL parenting and, thus, we have witnessed slippage of values that once governed the issues of parenting. Additionally, he suggests that this is facilitated by modern parents" fast-paced careers and the perpetual advancement of consumer technologies. And furthermore, that the near-future results of our society's dependence upon technology are detached families, " Parents had better keep these marvelous gizmos in good repair, because family get-togethers may soon be replaced by conference calls," and the complete eradication of normal family association, " As parents grow old and find themselves in a nursing home, they had better take a modem with them; emails are sure to follow. As time allows.".
I believe that the effects of technology on our society are even more serious than the parenting issues described by Etzioni. We are witnessing the slow regression of our society to one in which interpersonal and social skills and values are becoming seemingly more and more unnecessary. Today, through the use of technology, these elements that were once the foundation of our society are crumbling under-foot of the new computerized, technology-based society that is our future. Our children, the beneficiaries of this modern society, are less inclined to interact socially, because the opportunity to spend hours staring into the television or playing video games or surfing the Internet is much more appealing. They have access, again via Internet, to explicit, pornographic material and violence that has become the standard for what defines "interesting" movies or television programs for young people today. The average young person will view an estimated 200,000 acts of violence on TV by the time they are just 18 years of age.