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But Chua forbade parents from banning children from shows and games, as it might only push them further to consume them, secretly or defiantly.

Instead, she encouraged two-way, open-family communication. The self-professed gamer suggested watching or playing shows or games deemed controversial with their kids, and then talking about what was happening onscreen to help them process what they’d just consumed. Parents need to be truly engaged and actively listening, and withhold judgment as much as possible.

“Model real-life rather than online communication,” Chua said. “Favor real-life friends over Facebook friends. Invest in both quantity and quality time. The little things count: bonding and spending time with each other.”

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Demographers have christened today’s kids as the “iGen.” The demographic describes today’s generation as internet-driven, and self-absorbed and narcissistic.

Materialism and hedonism propagated by advertisements proclaim that “virginity is for losers” and “suffering has to be avoided at all costs; pleasure is supreme,” Chua said. Pornography is rougher, more violent nowadays, and freely accessible.

In 2014, the Philippines racked up $1 billion in porn transactions. Unrated TV shows in the new binge-watching format made popular by Netflix such as “13 Reasons Why” make suicide appear noble, glamorous and righteous, when it is, in essence, sadly narcissistic.

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Poor students

Chua said at one time she allowed some of her students to just take photos of the day’s notes on the blackboard with their phones instead of writing them down. She noted later that photo-taking students landed at the bottom of the class.

The process of note-taking engages the mind more and helps in retaining, processing and understanding the information being received, so Chua said she has since forbidden such photo-taking of notes at her sessions. There is value in acquiring knowledge the “hard” or “old-fashioned” way.

Because they often escape into the virtual world, Chua said that today’s youth have difficulty relating in-depth and lack empathy, which leads to loneliness and depression.

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Positive traits

On the other hand, positive traits possessed by Generation Me include being more open (pluralistic, tolerant, diverse), self-confident (unless it leads to narcissism), ambitious (with frequent course/job/career hoppers) and collaborative (in general). They like to serve their community by trying to find meaning in their work (what Simon Sinek similarly observed in today’s job-hopping millennials).

However, sensitive issues this generation has to deal with that others before them have not are how to cope with more rampant bullying (be it online, physical or verbal), the ease of porn availability in websites, magazines and books, how reading has taken a back seat, while gaming and social networking is allocated more time.

In September, the Atlantic posted an article (“Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”) that discussed how post-millennials had become affected by mental health issues because of this artificial “living” setup. Higher screen time meant higher cases of depression and unhappiness. The figures are all from the United States, but I can see how the results can be similar locally. —CONTRIBUTED

http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/

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