According to philosophy professor Jordan Shapiro, parents should embrace the technology that their kids are using and not worry so much about the time they are spending on it.

“Your job as a parent is not to stop unfamiliar tools from disrupting your nostalgic image of the ideal childhood, nor to preserve the impeccable tidiness of the Victorian era’s home/work split. Instead, it’s to prepare your kids to live in an ethical, meaningful and fulfilled life in an ever-changing world,” he writes. To do this, he argues, families and schools must embrace technology, including gaming, to prepare kids for an uncertain but determinedly digital future.

— A philosophy professor argues kids should use more technology, not less by Jenny Anderson for Quartz

As a tech-loving parent of two boys I know full well the impact of technology on our family. We do have a few ground rules when it comes to technology. No devices at the dinner table, no devices during movie nights and at least one night a week spent reading instead of gaming. Sure there are times when even I think that the boys have spent too much time on their games consoles and so we’ll huckle them off, and we’ll do something else.

Mostly it’s all about balance in our house, but I definitely lean towards allowing them to spend a bit more time on their games consoles. I remember spending whole weekends playing my games consoles and computers as a kid, so I’m in the camp that video games are not a bad thing. We also have more creative and educational games available. Minecraft anyone?

Maybe I’m a bit more forgiving in this respect because my oldest and I have started gaming together online recently. It certainly helps in the competitive matches in Overwatch to have a player you know to communicate with. We just need to get Drew to practice a bit more, and we’ll have a solid trio to play as online!