Kids would rather Ask Jeeves than ask dad
Families are in danger of falling into a ‘digital parent trap’, new research by npower reveals, with over a third of parents (34%) feeling replaced in their child’s life, and traded in for technology by having to compete with gadgets such as consoles and social networking for their son or daughter’s attention.
One in four children admit they’d chose time with an X-Box over quality time with their family.
As many as 15% of parents - or FOUR million - shockingly either ‘never’ spend an hour doing activities with their child, or couldn’t remember the last time they did.
Half of all children (51%) are glued to a screen for up to 5 hours a day.
Parents are cast off from their child’s learning, as well as play time, with 36% of young people choosing Ask Jeeves or Google over their parents’ knowledge to answer tricky homework questions, leaving over a quarter (28%) feeling redundant and hurt by the lack of involvement in their child’s life.
With 22% of youngsters ignoring their family to spend time online, parents are forced to communicate with their child by text or email even when just a few feet away in the same house, with a third of parents (35%) believing their children are ‘more likely to respond’ to a text or Facebook message.
The research was carried out to support npower’s No Power Hour, a UK-wide football road show hosted by ex-England manager Kevin Keegan designed to pull the whistle on plugged in power and encourage families to spend more time together, in the open air, saving energy at the same time.
With over a quarter (27%) of children preferring to communicate digitally rather than face to face with an actual person, respected psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos suggests parents and children are in danger of being left with communication issues that could affect them as they grow up. She said:
“The nation needs to switch off and spend time together doing face-to-face activities; just an hour a day interacting as a family can boost confidence and improve verbal communication.
“Not only that, if every person spent an hour outdoors using their own energy rather than being powered up, plugged in and online at home, the nation would actually save £327 million worth of electricity a year, which equals 1.6million tonnes of CO2 – a huge difference to the world.
“Nearly half of the parents questioned (46%) admit that the communication between themselves and their and child has been affected because of the child’s use of technology; they’re less responsive, conversation is kept to a minimum or they just have no idea what their child is up to.
“Because this level of technology was not present when we were growing up, it’s important to use it in a way that enriches our family life as opposed to using it to the detriment of other ways of communicating with each other.”
Clare McDougall, npower’s head of education and community, said: “Five hours sat in front of a screen or gadget is a long time - plus a lot of wasted energy!
“The npower No Power Hour road shows will visit four of the UK’s major cities and are designed to show families just how much fun can be had outside, in the open air, unplugged and using their own energy.
“Football legend Kevin Keegan will be on hand to host a tailor made workshop which will give families tips and tricks to have a fun-filled hour without power every day over the summer.”