The Digital Paradigm of Parenting

 By: Tushar Srivastava & VatsalGoel, Founders, www.nurturey.com

Technology is the new thread woven into fabrics of our daily lives. Penetrating deep into social institutions long before, this has now become an integral part of our personal lives. Especially, digital platforms are becoming an essential part of family lives as they have become the outright platforms for education, entertainment and management. Meanwhile, innovators are taking new leaps to integrate this aspect into intricate spaces. Engaging digital technology into parenting is an impressive and practical way to improve family lives in contemporary society.

New age parents have to tackle a lot of concerns and dilemmas on almost every step starting with the birth of child or even before that. They depend upon piles of literature on the Internet to free advice from family and friends to numerous forums and groups online for information on kids and parenting related issues. There is no dearth of online platforms for parenting content, blogs, forums or classifieds. However, with so much information, it is impossible for parents to read it all and more importantly, not all the information is relevant for their child.

Innovations in technology have brought forth digital productivity tools platforms to assist parenting. These tools will enable parents to manage information, to-do lists, growth tracking, milestones, documents, memories, basically their lives around kids, in one place.They help parents in tracking in physical as well as social growth of children. These tools are aggregated with in-depth information,connecting parents with relevant and personalized resources, such as, proactively connecting parents to a psychologist, if certain behavioral tendencies are spotted in a child. If only, parents sign up from the birth of their child till they reach their teens, these tools will be most effective, assisting them in their parental journey. Encouraging news is that availability of such intuitive and secure digital ‘productivity tools’ platform for parents is becoming a reality now.

 In today’s world, children get exposed to digital media at quite an early age. Usage of mobile, laptops and devices as well as access to internet cannot be restricted since they have become the necessity, providing massive platform for education and information. However, it has become equally important for parent to safeguard their children from negative online experiences and malicious content. They may regulate their kid’s usage of internet and also educate them about the ill effects of wrong usage. Technology is now helping parents in this aspect as many digital platforms have come up helping parents to track activities of their child and safeguard them from malicious channels.

Digital parenting has evolved to aid modern day parenting. Digital platforms, if used efficiently, can help parents understand their kid’s behaviors, psychology etc. in better and simpler manner, thereby helping parents to interact, respond and connect with their children more effectively.

Digital technology is evolving at a rapid pace and simplifying the parenting in modern age. But it has to be used properly, else it has its own negative impact.The most effective way to utilize the potentials of such platforms is to work collaboratively with children rather than being an authority over them. Throughout busy schedule of parents, managing time for family matters has become arduous in the competing world. However, human have learned to tackle every hurdle in effective ways. Digital platforms for parenting are simple but comprehensive solutions for the complexities in parenting that are emerging because of the current traits.