I definitely understood the concept of what this webinar was targeting however it seemed to come off in a very negative tone towards the new generation of iGens. Some of the examples provided had a negative connotation attached to them: for example, mentioning how adolescents are no longer independent or how it has become more difficult for them to make decisions on their own. Although this may be true for some, it is not necessarily the case for all families. There are those who learn to become independent at an early age or those whose parents expose to the “outside world”. Although, some of the statistics I found very alarming. It is incredible how since 2006, the time spent online has been more than doubled, spending an estimated 6-9 hours a day online (social media, games, etc), according to studies mentioned in the webinar.
Another fact that I think is crucial in mentioning is how since 2010, loneliness, unhappiness, anxiety, and depression have all witnessed an increase. This can be due to several factors: perhaps not spending enough face-to-face time with an individual.
The current model or growth of life is seeing families with not as many children but lots of nurture and care provided for their kids, exhibiting a “slow” life strategy while back in the 1950s, it was practically the opposite: families would have lots of children and expect them to learn different components of life on their own, exhibiting a more “fast” life strategy.
Although the majority of the examples provided seemed more negative, it is important to consider the positive aspects of utilizing social media in all environments, for example PSA videos.
I also found the statistics about depression and anxiety to be alarming. We will further explore some of these ideas in our next project. Thanks for sharing your initial thoughts, Afnan.