I have heard many people say that it is the strong that will survive, but I would like to introduce an alternative view. I believe it is the one who adapts to change the quickest and the best that will indeed survive.
We live in a rapidly changing world. One that I believe is changing so quickly that we seldom have enough time to settle into something new before that new thing evolves again.
Technology and the easy access to information through the media and the Internet have significantly influenced us as a people. I can remember as a child asking my mum for the definition or spelling of a word and her immediate response was, “Go look in the dictionary or encyclopedia”. Today, parents have replaced that with, “Google it” or “Check it on Wikipedia”.
We all have been influenced and are being influenced by the good and bad of this changing world through technology and the Internet. My greatest concern is how it is influencing our children.
If we were to sit for a week and spend time watching the shows and music videos our children watch, listening to the music they listen to and visiting the websites they visit, we would recognize that a lot of their behaviour, attitudes, dress and vocabulary are being encouraged and learnt from these sources. What this tells me is that as the world changes and evolves, so do our children. As a result, our responses and strategies in dealing with them must also change if we are to adequately guide and prepare them for a changing and challenging world.
Last year some colleagues and I were having a discussion about parenting and the challenge many parents are facing with their children. One colleague told us about an incident involving her and her 15-year-old son. After we heard the story, the rest of us erupted with laughter at her response, which we agreed was innovative, well thought out, relevant and highly effective.
She said: “One day I asked my oldest son to assist his brother in completing his work. When I returned home, I discovered that the work was not done. I asked him why he did not assist his brother. He contended that it is/was my responsibility to help his brother with his work, not his. I felt like slapping him but withheld from doing it. My husband and I discussed his response and came up with a solution. I went to my son, who was watching television, and told him that is my responsibility to pay the electricity bill, and therefore he would not be able to watch television or play some of his favourite games.”
“Boom”, “bup, bup, bup”, “brax brax” were some of my immediate responses.
Back in the day (as if I am that old – lol, lol), I am almost certain her son would have received a “box in the mouth” for that comment. She chose to restrain herself and changed her method of discipline, which I thought was very effective.
Parents today need to recognize that their children are living in a world that is completely different from the one they grew up in. Most, if not all of our children, know more at their age than we did at that age. Our strategies, methods of discipline, relations, modes of communication and responses to our children need to change if we are to be effective in our parenting.
I would encourage parents who have children under the age of 16 to insist that their children add them as a friend to their Facebook. This networking site has many advantages, but it can also be abused and used to corrupt the minds of our children, and its effects will be seen in their behaviour, vocabulary and attitudes.
If we are to be influential in the lives of our young people, we must be willing and able to adapt to this changing world while still maintaining the foundational values and moral principles of our society.
If we don’t change, we will lose our youth.
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth youth ambassador. Email coreyworrell@gmail.com.