Smartphone, a Helping Hand

Desi Yoanita

and Kartika Bayu Primasanti

Communication Science Department, Petra Christian University

Early Childhood Teacher Education Department, Petra Christian University

Keywords: Parenting, Digital Era, Family Communication, Smartphone, Children.

Abstract: Various research study and news articles reported that communication devices, such as smartphones or

tablets, have changed families’ communication. Technology has replaced the parental function to provide

entertainment, communication, and education. Users’ low skill of media literacy was a significant challenge

in the digital age that requires ever-accelerating adaptation in all of these areas. Through the current

research study, it has been revealed that there is a need for parents to be media literate in order to establish

mutual communication with their children in this digital age. This research explored how parents use the

newest digital technology, particularly smartphones and tablets, in relation to traditional media, for instance,

TV, video games, and computer in the parenting practices. This research focused on 150 parents, whose age

is around 22-39 years old, who have early years children. The problem discussed was the parenting style in

this gadget-rich era. The study found that gadgets were not the respondents’ first choice to help their

parenting. The devices have become the second choice in certain circumstance to help them out from

challenge in parenting. On the other hand, 52% of them used deprivation of the gadget usage as disciplinary

action. This research study has showed a current model of communication between parents and children in

the gadget-rich era. However, the literature review suggested that this model should have been revised by

enriching parental skill of technological based media literacy.

1 INTRODUCTION

Technology is an entity that is inseparable from

human life in the 21st century. From the morning

until night before going to bed, people cannot be far

away from technology, especially the information

and communication technology. As reported by We

Are Social, a media company from UK, in January

2018 active users of social media in Indonesia

reached 130 million (49%) of total population. As

many as 120 million Indonesians used mobile

devices, such as smartphones or tablets to access

social media (Pertiwi, 2018). Smartphones and

tablets are very popular and useful because those

gadgets allow users to search and store information,

send emails, communicate with instant messaging,

play games, and even work. Everything can be done

at the same time.

Smartphones and tablets not only change the way

people work and socialize, but also change the way

family members communicate to each others. There

are families, especially those who are separated by

distance, which are easily connected by technology.

They can communicate anytime and anywhere.

Moreover, smartphone’s features facilitate not only

audio but also visual. Family members can

communicate as if they are talking face to face.

However, the technology let people face negative

impact as well. Many family members complained

about other family members who considered busy

with their smartphones. In a gathering event such as

dinner or recreation, face to face communication is

not effective even though they are in the same place

because each family member is busy with their

devices. They are communicating with people who

are far away. Ironically, they do not necessarily get

to know closer to the people they are living with.

Previously, television became an important part

of the family, but now the internet has changed

many things. Not only make human’s work easier,

the internet has the risk of divulging private

information, providing information that should not

be accessed, such as pornography and violence.

Although it has a negative influence, the

existence of communication technology cannot be

avoided anymore. Internet bringing two way

communication into a home, allowing outside world

into the family space. Thus, though media are an

integral part of the home environment, they often

396

Yoanita, D. and Primasanti, K.

Smartphone, a Helping Hand.

DOI: 10.5220/0009021700002297

In Proceedings of the Borneo International Conference on Education and Social Sciences (BICESS 2018), pages 396-401

ISBN: 978-989-758-470-1

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seem like uninvited strangers (Alexander, Media and

the Family, 2008).

Media also changes the pattern of interaction

between family members. When there is media

placed in the bedroom, each family member will

spend more time there than interaction with other

members in the family room(Bovill & Livingstone,

2001).

Survey conducted by Indonesian Internet Service

Provider Association (APJII) in 2017 shows that

most internet user are 19-34 years old (Nabila,

2018). However it is undeniably, even early

childhood children are more familiar with internet,

and of course device like smartphone. Another

survey by Indonesia Hottest Insight in 2013

indicates that 40% children in Indonesia are

technologically literate, or also called active internet

users (Wulandari, 2016). How early childhood is

familiar with smartphone certainly cannot be

separated from the role of their parents.

CouponCodes4u surveyed 2403 parents from

across United States, and more than half of them

admit that they allow their children to play with

smartphone. Result shows that parents has several

reason. The most common reason is take a break

from parenting, the second is parents want to enjoy

their ‘me-time’, and the least reason is to keep their

children quiet (DailyMail, 2013). According to

researchers’ observations, such conditions also

happen in Indonesia.

According to De Bell and Chapman, internet use

among American children aged 6-8 is doubled.

While in 2003, 91% of children from 3 years old to

12th grade use computers, and 59% use internet

(Jones & Park , Virtual Worlds: Young Children

Using the Internet, 2015).

Exposure to gadget from early age is feared to

result in some adverse effects on children. Simon

and Memeth concern about: children spend too

much time with technology and it will dominate

their activities; infants and toddlers are being forced

to use technology; and children will be exposed to

inappropriate content and inappropriate marketing

(Jones & Park , Virtual Worlds: Young Children

Using the Internet, 2015).

In Indonesia, only two days after opening a

complaint service for children suspected of being

addicted to gadgets, the Indonesia Child Protection

Commission has received 10 reports from various

region (Suryowati, 2018). This condition certainly

needs a serious concern. The increase in the number

of smartphone and internet users in Indonesia is not

immediately followed by the speed of media

literacy. In a research about The World’s Most

Literate Nations (WMLN) published in 2016,

Indonesia ranks 60th out of 61 countries (Miller &

McKenna, 2016). That level is very low comparing

with high number of gadget users in this

country.Therefore, researchers think that it is

important to know how parents tend to use

smartphones and tablets while they are with their

children.

Research with similar topic previously conducted

by Center on Media and Human Development,

Northwestern University. That study explores how

parents in US are incorporating new digital

technologies as well as older media platforms into

their family lives and parenting practices. It is based

on an extensive survey of a nationally representative

sample of more than 2300 parents of children from

birth to eight years old (Wartella, Rideout,

Lauricella, & Connell, 2014).

This research focus on parents lives in Surabaya

(Indonesia second largest city), whose childre is 0-5

years old. This age range is the foundation for the

development of the brain and physical. Adult

interaction with the child during this period is

regarded as the key to brain development (Leung,

Leung, & Chan, 2005). Moreover, at this age, the

child has not undergone compulsory education

classes so that their interactions are mostly with

families, in this case parents.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Parents-child Communication

Parents are the first people a child commonly meet.

Children supposed to learn everything from parents.

In general, parents has responsibility to nurture their

children. Nurturing includes communication that is

central to encouraging development, including both

verbal and nonverbal behaviors that are encouraging

and supportive (LePoire, 2006).

Communication between parents and children

including both verbal and nonverbal messages.

Children benefit from being frequently reminded od

their parents’ love, warmth, and involvement, both

verbally and nonverbally (Segrin & Flora, 2005).

Therefore children need the real existence of their

parents.

The pattern of parent-child communication

affects many things in children’s future life.

According to Bowlby, the nature of the parent-infant

interaction sets a template for social relationships

that the child will carry with him or her for life.

(Segrin & Flora, 2005). Social relationships

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including their future relationships with spouse or

relationships with friends which influence by their

positive view of self. Grew up in a warm, intact

family or in a cold, broken family will greatly

influence one’s view of relationships.

Parents are also the main source for children to

learn manners, social norms, as well as basic human

abilities to survive. Smith, Cudaback, Goddard, and

Myers-Walls classified parenting roles as involving

activities such as caring for oneself, managing

resources (money, housing, and food), guiding and

motivationg children, and connecting effectively to

social systems such as child care and schools, to

ensure that children get the resources they need

(Dworking, Walker, Rudi, & Doty, 2015).

Successful parenting not only results in positive

child outcomes and in healthy relationships between

parent and child, but also in fostering the caregiver’s

own maturation and development (Walker, 2015).

2.2 Children and Technology

Today’s generation of children cannot be compared

to past generations. They are referred to generation

Z, born after 1996 and some experts call them post-

millenials. This generation are very familiar with

technology, even since they were still in the womb.

That’s why the belong to the digital natives group,

who born and traised with great technological

involvement.

A report by Common Sense Media shows that in

US, children 8 and younger spent 48 minutes a day

staring at a mobile screen. It has tripled in just four

years. Also found that 42% of respondents now have

their own tablet devices (Howard, 2017).

Previously, theAsianParent Insights did a survey

in 2014 to 2500 parents in Singapore, Thailand,

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philipines. Surprisingly,

98% respondents allow their kid using smartphone/

tablet. Their children mostly use smartphone/tablet

for playing games, approximately in an hour per

usage.

The numbers above will certainly continue to

increase because the development of the device is

increasingly diverse and the price is getting cheaper.

Without proper literacy for parents and children, this

condition is feared to cause adverse effects on child

development and family relationships.

2.3 Effects of Gadget Exposures on

Parents and Children

This development later became a prolonged

dilemma among child development experts and

parents. Some say, technology has a positive impact

on child development. Others say otherwise.

According to Jordan, Hersey, McDivitt, Heitzler,

technology may have a slightly different role in the

lives of parents though, as a resource they can draw

on to fulfill certain responsibilities that come along

with parenthood (Villegas, 2013). One of the

primary findings in another research was how,

“parents believe that media are important element to

keep the family close and the system running

smoothly.” It seems that most parents support and

encourage children’s use of digital devices (Jones &

Park, Virtual Worlds: Young Children Using the

Internet, 2015).

One of the application that parents might like is

e-book or digital book. It is a complete package

including picture books, talking books, interactive

books.High-quality, developmentally-appropriate e-

books can be used to scaffold young children’s

literacy experiences. The combine use of traditional

picture of books and e-books, with adult support,

considered as the best way to address the needs of

diverse group of young children and individual

children with varied interest, literacy levels, and

special needs (Barnyak & McNelly, 2015).

According to Yves Punie, gadget allows children

to study the learning contents in an interesting and

entertaining way. It is also increases children’s

competences in digital literacy and technical skills

which are needed for employment, education, and

self-development in the modern society (Vodopivec,

2014). Shortly, this tool allows children to explore

the world in a fast, easy, and inexpensive way.

Even it has a lot of advantages, gadget also has

many disadvantages. According to Young People

and New Media (YNPM) research, nowadays

children tends to spend time at home, with their

gadget rather than outdoors (Livingstone, 2002).

This condition can affect a child’s ability to

socialize. They are more accustomed to virtual

relationships rather than to humans. In 1999, while

internet was not so popular and television was the

major media at home, American Academy of

Pediatrics has issued a warning to limit children’s

‘screen-time’ because the longer they watch TV, the

less time they interact with parents or caregiver

(Barr, 2008). This concern is certainly increasing

because the duration of smartphone usage is now

also increasing sharply.

Unappropriated contents also become a serious

concern of smartphone usage. Digital cable and

wireless internet make certain types of content, such

as violence and sex, readily available to young

children (Alexander, Media and the Family, 2008).

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Another issue regarding smartphone usage is

about privacy security. Protection of privacy has

long been a concern. In practice, many attributes of

the internet prove highly challenging for individual

user rights to control their personal data. Many

internet users have become accustomed to click

‘accept’ button and consenting to provide their data

without carefully read the terms of service or

Wagner, Hawtin, & Torres, 2012).

3 METHODOLOGY

This descriptive reasearch study was a quantitative

approach. This study’s aim was to describe

sistematically, data-based writing toward facts and

the charater of population or certain object

(Kriyantono, 2006, p. 69). This method was used to

describe in general how parents and children

communicate in this digital-rich era. This approach

did not need an in-depth look at a certain object but

generally depict the broader fact. The researchers

used survey with questionnaire as the instrument.

The sample of this research study was from a

population of parents who lives in Surabaya whose

children are early childhood to teenager—the

population who were struggling with technological

based media as their everyday communication tool.

The researcher approached the sampling using quota

technique through an online procedure. The sample

of this research study was 150 parents who filled out

the online questionnaire.

Questionnaire we use in this research adopted

from research conducted by Center on Media and

Human Development, Northwestern University. We

modified some questions based on special

characteristics of this study, such as the age of the

children and variety of gadget (Wartella, Rideout,

Lauricella, & Connell, 2014).

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 The Gen Y Parents

According to the data, 83 respondents were 31-40

years old, 61 respondents were 21-30 years old, and

only 7 respondents were over 40 years old. This data

showed that majority of the parents were Gen Y,

who born in 1977-1995. This generation was also a

technology-literate generation and connected 24

hours a day (Sulaiman & Al-Muscati, 2017) through

devices.

The background of the respondent’s profession

was diverse. There were 61 respondents worked as

entrepreneurs. The 63 respondents work in varied

fields, such as tourism, hospitality, finance, health,

education, and culinary. Only 26 respondents were

full housewives. In terms of educational

background, respondents were considered well

educated because 97 of them had completed a

bachelor’s degree education, 19 respondents had

finished their master degree, and one respondent got

a Ph.D degree.

Even though the majority of parents were Gen Y,

they were not fully gadget dependent-type of parents

when they take care of their children. They still used

traditional activities such as reading books or

playing traditional games. In fact, 76 respondents

argued, smartphones had negative impact on

children’s socialization abilities. Likewise in terms

of physical activity, 78 respondents thought

smartphone also give a negative impact.

Profile of respondents of this study were parents

who were well educated and well literate. They

gained information regarding the positive and

negative impacts of gadget in children’s lives.

Therefore, they prevented the unwanted impact from

the early stage, so that their children would not

addicted to gadget.

4.2 Gadget as a Helping Hand

In answering the question of this research study,

there were three primary questions we aksed to the

respondents: In the family time, what activities you

enjoy together? How much you allow your kids to

use gadgets at home? What activities you let your

kids do whey you are engage a busy task?

All the respondents of this study were classified

into ‘working age group’, whose age are 15-64.

They were considered as the most productive group.

The data showed that more than 50% of the

respondents were enterpreneurs. Moreover, 90% of

the respondents had earned their undergraduate

degree in various disciplines. Thus, according to the

respondents’ profiles, they were considered as a

flexibile time manager type of parents. This group

should have sufficient time to guide their children

themselves. In addition, this sample were classified

as a well educated group who should gain a proper

literacy in media and technology usage.

Regarding the gadget literacy, data showed that

more than 75% of the respondents own both

smartphone and gadget. However, they did not just

let their kids to play those gadget in their own room.

The parents created a control procedure for their

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399

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kids to play the gadget in their room. There were 84

respondents who were not permitted to play the

gadget more than one hour. The others let he kids to

play only for 1-2 hours per day. It indicated that the

parents had sensed the negative impact of

uncontrolable gadget usage.

More than 75% of the respondents admitted that

face to face interaction activities with the children

were still favored in the families. More than 90% of

the respondents like to read with their children. The

same number also practice family activities, such as

watching television, singing together, outdoor

playing, boardgaming, doing sports, and cooking.

Interestingly, 75 respondents confessed that playing

with smartphone or tablet was not really interesting

for them as family activity.

Back in the 1900s to 2000s, before the raise of

smartphone and tablet, parents-children activities for

more well educated families were varied, such as

reading, storytelling, teaching words and numbers,

music, arts, and craft (Schaub, 2015). In addition,

Lopez et al (2015) agreed that the increase of

technological-based communication device had

altered the families’ structure, deprived the families’

tradition, and increase the individualism over the

families’ function. The 1900s’ kids were now

parents who inherit the custom activities from their

family. The activities with family were not only a

need but also a tradition. According to Schaub

(2015), the more well educated families would

practiced and hold the families’ tradition stronger

rather than the non educated families. Thus, even

though those 1900s kids—who now were parents—

living in a gadget-rich era, the non-gadget families’

activities tradition were still alive in their families.

In 2001, Hughes and Hans (2001) conducted a

research to seek the role of technology in a family.

They concluded that the largest increase of

technological useage in a family was for educational

purpose and communication. However, nowadays,

the view of the smartphone usage on children was

more negative because the increase of addiction to

the entertainment features provided in smartphone

(Cha and Kyung-Seo, 2018). In this current research

study, parents view on smartphone and tablet were

changed. They were not only use those gadget for

educational and leisure purposes, but a helping

hands.

When it came to a question “In the family time,

what activities you enjoy together?”, the data

showed that more than 75% of respondents selected

the face to face family activities, such as board

gaming, ourdoor playing, reading, singing, and

cooking. However, for the question “What activities

you let your kids do whey you are engage a busy

task?”, the data indicated that 50% of the

respondents chose smartphone and gadget as the

caregiver for their children. In addition, for this

purpose, the parents were not permitted their kids to

use those gadget more than 2 hours.

For this sample group, the smartphone and

gadget were not the first choice for their family

activities. They considered those devices as a

helping hand for parents when they were in a critical

situation, such as when parents were involving busy

task or when the children were in emotional mood.

Wang, Roache, Pusateri (2018) stated that

parents have the most significant role in children

development, especially in communication and life

skill. There were two important factors in the parent-

children communication in this gadget-rich era:

effectivity and appropriateness. This two factors

were pivotal keys in technological literacy for

parents and children. When parents know what was

the most effective way to teach and to communicate

with their children, they would use that method

instead of following the trend. In this current study,

the data indicated that the parent group was those

who earned their undergraduate degree. They must

have read been exposed to the positive and negative

impact of technology for their children.

Another factor was appropriateness. According

to the data, majority of the parents used gadget only

in a certain circumstance and with certain

conditions. They allowed their kids to use

smartphone or tablet only when they were engaging

critical situation. Other than that, they chose to play

with their children themselves. Thus, the parents

understand the appropriate based concept of gadget

usage for children.

5 CONCLUSIONS

In this research study, parents used gadget only

in a certain circumstance and with certain

conditions. They allowed their kids to use

smartphone or tablet only when they were engaging

critical situation. This parent’s behavior also

affected by their education and technological

literacy background.

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