Ioana Scoruș highlights the growing reliance on quick fixes and technology, urging parents to foster genuine connections and self-awareness to nurture healthier emotional growth in children.
Ioana Scoruș says many parents are still looking for quick fixes in a world that promises them. In an interview with HotNews, the psychotherapist argues that modern families are increasingly drawn towards shortcuts, whether in parenting, self-help or emotional care, and that these promises often mask deeper problems rather than solve them.
Scoruș, a psychoanalytic therapist, has recently published “Drumul spre sine”, a book built from notes, reflections and one encounter in her consulting room that she says altered her professional and personal outlook. She is also the author of “Nu copilul e de vină. Pentru o contraetică a părintelui care ştie tot”, in which she challenges the habit of blaming children for difficulties rooted in family life.
At the centre of her argument is the idea that many people live behind a false self, a defensive persona formed early in life to cope with an unsafe environment. She describes another common escape route as busyness and distraction: work, alcohol, food, shopping, travel and endless entertainment. In her view, the result is a generation that has become skilled at avoiding itself.
That concern fits with wider research on family and screen use. A Pew Research Centre report in 2020 found that 66% of U.S. parents said raising children was harder than it had been 20 years earlier, and 71% of parents of children under 12 were at least somewhat worried about excessive screen time. Other studies have linked heavy device use by parents and children to weaker parent-child interaction, more fragmented attention and poorer social-emotional development.
Scoruș is especially critical of the way technology has changed childhood. She says many children now grow up on devices from an early age, with play replaced by scheduled activities and digital stimulation. Parents, she argues, often chase performance from the age of two, enrolling children in programmes that promise creativity, emotional intelligence or empathy, while offering little evidence of lasting benefit.
She also sees the parent-child bond being weakened by what she calls repeated ruptures: early return to work, too much reliance on toys and screens, and a household culture in which everyone is physically together but mentally elsewhere. Research on parental “technoference”, published in 2023, suggests that when devices interrupt family interaction, adolescent mental health and behaviour can suffer.
Her comments extend beyond screens. Scoruș is deeply sceptical of trends that, in her view, encourage confusion rather than understanding, including fashionable therapy services that are not properly grounded in psychology. She says some families are persuaded that emotional pain can be solved by a retreat or a costly treatment, when what is often needed is sustained therapeutic work, clear boundaries and more honest self-knowledge.
For all her criticism, Scoruș’s message is not simply anti-technology or anti-modernity. She is asking parents to look more closely at their own behaviour, to accept that children are shaped by what adults model, and to understand that connection is built slowly through presence, curiosity and discipline. Her warning is blunt: if adults keep outsourcing attention and responsibility, children will pay the price.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
