“Smart Things” in Child-Parent Interaction: Statement of Problem

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of modes of interaction between parents and children in conditions of using digital gadgets. The relevance of the proposed study is that in the last few years, new media technologies are being adapted to specific groups. In recent years, the use of gadgets for parents with children of different ages is spreading. These gadgets monitor the child’s physiological parameters and inform parents about them. Using the methodology of STS, we can say that the introduction of technological artifacts in the daily life of child-parent relations gives rise to the problem of disentanglement - increasing the number of technical intermediaries of interaction. These gadgets, like any other technological device, are a part of the “embodied ideology”. This means that technologies outstrip the development of the users’ interests, their attitudes, motives and practices in a particular way, direct and prescribe actions to their users. The study was funded by RFBR according to research project No. 18-011-00692 Parenthood in the era of “smart things”: a sociological analysis.