The endless articles about how technology is consuming working parents and thus destroying our kids are getting more and more alarmist.

“..parents who are easily distracted by their phones or iPads are modeling potentially harmful behavior for their impressionable children, says Patrick Kelly, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.”

That’s from a Washington Post article a good buddy of mine from Virginia sent me last week titled “A new generation gets hooked on Mother’s little helper,” and it’s only one of a litany of warnings to working parents about their iPhones, Droids, and any number of gizmos. These reports often get me worried and have me flinging my cell phone across the room, but today I’m pondering whether these gadgets so many experts berate are actually the reason we can do our jobs and still spend quality time with our families.

Attacks on our technology may actually be undermining an important work-life balance revolution. The debate over the over-use of all things digital sounds eerily similar to the daycare debate that flairs up every time there’s some new research. Daycare makes our kids dumb and fat; or haven’t you heard.

So, let’s look at the bright side of technology this morning, and not at all the scary, our-kids-are-going-to-become-fat-ax-murderers-because-we-text-message-at-the-dinner-table prophecies. Why do you love your digital devices that help you balance work and family? (more…)