Is Too Much Tech for Baby Rearing Good or Bad?

We have become so comfortable with technology consuming our everyday lives that we often take for granted or forget rather it’s presence even as we pay for items using our phones, track our calorie and step counts, stream music or drift from device to device seamlessly. 

With the world’s largest consumer tech show CES kicking off in Las Vegas with press events on Jan 4th and the main show on Jan 6th running all the way through end of the business week, the world’s press will be soaking up the unveiling of fully autonomous cars, virtual reality headsets, wearable tech and everything from toasters to refrigerators talking to each other as the concept of an “always connected” smart home becomes a reality.

However, there is another area that is experiencing a massive sales boom in the tech industry that is showing no sign of slowing down. Baby Tech has quietly been gathering pace as concerned parents and families continue to happily pay whatever it takes for complete peace of mind. I have very young children myself (two boys currently 3 and 7), and as a tech addict, have gone through my fair share of gadgets and cams at each stage of their lives. However, the range of baby gadgets surfacing now are of a different level to when my kids were babies not too long ago. Keeping that in mind and from first hand experience of bringing up young children in a new American household, I do wonder if this level of reliance on technology is indeed feeding the fear psychology of an already paranoid two-income working household? 

Most new parents will meticulously read through a mountain of books (we did!) before their pride and joy arrive in this world only to realize that the change in lifestyle was something that could never be taught in a book. However, the lack of a real instruction manual leads many parents to turn to technology for a helping hand and to secure any advantage that they possibly can.

One such gadget is the MonBaby Smart Button that measures body position, breathing movements, proximity removal and fall detection, all of which can be remotely monitored from the nervous new parent's smartphone for the knockdown price of $129.00.

Alternatively, there is the Owlet smart sock monitor that monitors your new bundle of joy’s heart rate with the somewhat sinister tagline “Wakes you up when your baby can’t”.

There is a smart sleep suit called Mimo Baby Monitor that promises no more sleepless nights by feeding your phone with data about how your baby is breathing as well as her body position, sleeping temperature, activity level, and whether she is asleep. As a father or two young kids, I can safely say that it was not the lack of available data on my newborn babies that kept me up at night. 

Do devices like these offer a welcome hand to parents or do they leave them in a constant state of worry until they end up nearly neurotic? This is no different from the psychology of incessantly checking our emails on our smartphones. This onslaught of baby tech products often seems to prey on new parents’ fears by presenting a worst case scenario into a sales pitch and selling peace of mind for a relatively high price tag. Don’t get me wrong I am all for cameras to watch babies but as you will know if you have ever watched your baby on a camera from another room (and hopefully not any further from that!), they “sleep like a baby” i.e. they do not toss and turn at each instant you decide to watch them. So, if you feel like your baby is not moving enough or showing the right types of satisfying motions to you on your camera view, and having established that uneasiness in your mind, if you then decide to actually view your smartphone for “data” rather than walk over to see your baby in person, then I’m afraid we have a problem, and its likely not with the baby.

With the rise of digital daycare and even with the learning and development years being hijacked by technology, should we be asking if too much tech for baby rearing is a bad thing? We are entering an age of Smart Toys where even friends can be substituted for a square shaped bear that creepily wants to be your child's new best friend and answers to any name you "enter" into the bear, but are we neglecting to teach ourselves self-awareness and basic person to person (baby to baby!) social skills? I mean I hope this Smart Toy is not replacing a visit with your baby to the library, a baby gym, or even a possible group play date.

Most parents will frustratingly tell you how their preschoolers will not be able to tie their shoelaces but will instinctively know how to use an iPad or iPhone, which comes in handy during a temper tantrum while trying to eat a meal in a public place. There are many debates on the pros and cons of children using technology, but the end result is already unavoidable. 

Despite millennials and Gen Y (birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s) grabbing all the headlines, we often forget that Gen Z or iGen (birth years ranging from the mid-or-late 1990s to the 2010s) will represent 40% of all consumers by 2020 and self-educate themselves to find the information they need. They are also the first generation to have been raised using five screens comprising a smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop, and tablet.

The CES will dominate headlines for the entire week with a whole host of technology that was previously thought of as pure science fiction but that will likely be a reality in 2016. We often look at just how much this new shiny tech is changing our world, but we don’t always think about how much it has changed the lives of our children and their upbringing.

Thank you for reading. I write and publish weekly via www.Blogbrain.org, the dedicated repository for my articles, essays and blogs on all things business, digital, life, management & technology. I am grateful that the list of followers has grown to a respectable 100K+ across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. If my blogs help you and you'd like to consider nominating me for the LinkedIN Top Voices List then please fill out this short form. With gratitude.