A panel discussion was organized as a joint collaboration between James Cook University Psychology Society and Golden Key Singapore. The theme for this year’s panel discussion was “Living in the Digital Age and Parenting Challenges”. This topic was thought to be highly relevant in today’s context, since we are all highly dependant on the technology use in our everyday lives.
Professionals from
varying fields were invited to be on the panel and to provide their unique perspectives
on the topic. We were honored to have invited Dr. Aoife McLoughlin, Associate Professor
Roberto Dillon and Dr Koong Hean Foo as the respective speakers for the
discussion.
Dr. McLoughlin, a
psychologist specializing in the perception of time, shared her views about how
technology by its very nature could cause us to lose track of time, in the same
way that the television, or a good book can. However, an overuse of technology
would be considered as an addiction, whereas reading for hours each day is seen
as a healthy habit. Dr McLoughlin explored the reasons as to why this
difference is observed and where the differences lie. She suggested that
careful monitoring is necessary to ensure that children are accessing only
information that is suitable for them, via parental control and online
extensions like ‘stay focused’.
Associate Professor
Dillon, a professional in game design, provided an interesting perspective on
features of digital media today are engineered to be addictive in nature. He
shared that games were considered to be an avenue for escapism from reality and
the provision of rewards is appealing to gamers, in a very hedonistic manner. A
particularly unique viewpoint he shared was that in recent years, game
developers have turned to using the removal of awards in order to appeal to
gamers. As counter-intuitive as that might sound, his words made much sense
when he drew relevance to games like ‘Farm Story’ in which the players’ crops
would die after a certain amount of time, so that players would be motivated to
return to the game again and again. Associate Professor Dillon, however,
acknowledged that video games are complex and powerful mediums that could help
to train and teach players essential skills. Nevertheless, he warned that game
designers purposefully design games such that the players would want to return
to the game continuously, as game companies ultimately runs a business. As a
caveat, he suggested that future games should include a game lockdown system;
controlling the amount of time a player spends on a game. He also suggested the
possibility of subdividing the game into smaller quests in order to ensure
progress on the game can be self-contained.
Dr Foo, a
psychologist specializing the field of social psychology and family dynamics,
shared his interesting perspective that the use of digital media only becomes a
problem today because of poor time management, rather than because of
addiction. He also shared his view on how parents might try to communicate with
their children when there is poor time management. Dr Foo then wrapped up his
session with a constructive advice to many of the parents present in the panel
discussion: It is important to be a good role model for the children and to
spend quality time with their family, rather than turn to various forms of
digital media; be it for work or for leisure. In other words, go out on
weekends for a family picnic or play sports outdoors, rather than stay cooped
up at home watching the television or using the computer!
Please feel free
to send us an email or post on our GKS Facebook page for any future topics you
would be interested in for our next panel discussion.
Carol Lin
Outgoing-President 2013/2014
Post a Comment