I LOVE technology. I'm a virtual slave to the Internet. Apps and devices and websites and integration really get my (search) engine going. I am in constant awe of how convenient technology makes my life.
Tech has the potential to allow future generations to become even smarter than any one before. However sometimes I feel that we use gadgets with kids so much, as am attempt to keep the occupied and behaved, we are stripping them of some basic skill sets that will be vital down the road.
Last week I was driving down the road and saw in the back of a minivan two small children, no more than 7. They were both completely enthralled in their individual tablets watching what looked like the same movie. There are a couple of things that erk me about this situation,which I will discuss in a minute. Firstly I want to acknowledge the general isolation and disconnect that I worry these kids are going to develop. I am in my late twenties, and came of age at the Dawn if the instant message generation. Daily I would race home after school to plop in my reclining chair which I had strategically in front of my desk so I could spin my monitor around and sit comfortably for HOURS "chatting" with my friends online. What we talked about for all that time I have no idea, with the exception of the few chats I printed out, nothing was particularly memorable.
My first boyfriend both asked me up, and ultimately broke up with me via AIM. Anything that bothered me about people, I would address it with them in an IM. we would fish for information on who liked who, in chat rooms. And to this day, I have trouble having real serious conversations with people to their face. When something bothers me, it's a million times easier for me to discuss it via text than it is for me to bring it up over coffee or a beer, a short coming that I blame entirely on spending my formative years behind a computer screen.
When I see a set of kidS sitting in a car TOGETHER, and completely disengaged it frightens me that their little psychoses are going to be even worse than mine, at least when I was with people in real life I was forced to interact with them.
Secondarily seeing kids so engulfed in technology and gadgets, specifically in waiting rooms or at restaurants, I wonder how are we teaching skills like patience and general public edict. So often lately when I'm out in public and I see a child acting up, or getting fidgety, parents instantly reach into their pockets or purses and hand the child their phone or tablets. Keep them occupied so that you don't have to deal with their misbehavior. But I wonder where did teaching children that they should maintain themselves out side the home go? When I was a child it was just expected of me to try to sit still, and wait. I was required to not yell or interrupt, my mother talking to another adult, and if I ever did to ask my mum when we were leaving, or for her phone, I'm pretty sure when we got to the car I would either lose some sort or privilege or even worse get the "your behavior in there was completely disappointing" comment that seems to cut deeper than a knife when your seven years old.
The last thing that kind makes my head want to explode when I see kids with their mum's tablets and gadgets, is more geared towards the fact that kids are clumsy by nature, they not proportional, their parts are arranged that they drop things, they fall, they put things down and forget them and everything they touch is likely to brake. And seeing a little kid waking around with its mothers iPhone, an object that I hold near and dear to myself, a little item that if broken or lost would be beyond devastating to me, firstly because I'm not super awesome at backing things up, and secondly, I don't often have $700 to drop on a new phone sans a contract, which doesn't renew till July 2015 for me (iPhone 6s anyone?). My heart climbs up in my throat, and wants to snatch the phone out of the kids hand and tell them "No! That's a grown up toy!"
But the reality is that, it's not, not any more, kids have taken over the work of fancy gadgets, and they have settled in there better than any of us had, no matter how much of a techie you are. Kids can pick up an iPhone and with in 10 minute know how to shoot, edit and upload a semi decent video to YouTube. And they are only getting better at it!
Tech has the potential to allow future generations to become even smarter than any one before. However sometimes I feel that we use gadgets with kids so much, as am attempt to keep the occupied and behaved, we are stripping them of some basic skill sets that will be vital down the road.
Last week I was driving down the road and saw in the back of a minivan two small children, no more than 7. They were both completely enthralled in their individual tablets watching what looked like the same movie. There are a couple of things that erk me about this situation,which I will discuss in a minute. Firstly I want to acknowledge the general isolation and disconnect that I worry these kids are going to develop. I am in my late twenties, and came of age at the Dawn if the instant message generation. Daily I would race home after school to plop in my reclining chair which I had strategically in front of my desk so I could spin my monitor around and sit comfortably for HOURS "chatting" with my friends online. What we talked about for all that time I have no idea, with the exception of the few chats I printed out, nothing was particularly memorable.
My first boyfriend both asked me up, and ultimately broke up with me via AIM. Anything that bothered me about people, I would address it with them in an IM. we would fish for information on who liked who, in chat rooms. And to this day, I have trouble having real serious conversations with people to their face. When something bothers me, it's a million times easier for me to discuss it via text than it is for me to bring it up over coffee or a beer, a short coming that I blame entirely on spending my formative years behind a computer screen.
When I see a set of kidS sitting in a car TOGETHER, and completely disengaged it frightens me that their little psychoses are going to be even worse than mine, at least when I was with people in real life I was forced to interact with them.
Secondarily seeing kids so engulfed in technology and gadgets, specifically in waiting rooms or at restaurants, I wonder how are we teaching skills like patience and general public edict. So often lately when I'm out in public and I see a child acting up, or getting fidgety, parents instantly reach into their pockets or purses and hand the child their phone or tablets. Keep them occupied so that you don't have to deal with their misbehavior. But I wonder where did teaching children that they should maintain themselves out side the home go? When I was a child it was just expected of me to try to sit still, and wait. I was required to not yell or interrupt, my mother talking to another adult, and if I ever did to ask my mum when we were leaving, or for her phone, I'm pretty sure when we got to the car I would either lose some sort or privilege or even worse get the "your behavior in there was completely disappointing" comment that seems to cut deeper than a knife when your seven years old.
The last thing that kind makes my head want to explode when I see kids with their mum's tablets and gadgets, is more geared towards the fact that kids are clumsy by nature, they not proportional, their parts are arranged that they drop things, they fall, they put things down and forget them and everything they touch is likely to brake. And seeing a little kid waking around with its mothers iPhone, an object that I hold near and dear to myself, a little item that if broken or lost would be beyond devastating to me, firstly because I'm not super awesome at backing things up, and secondly, I don't often have $700 to drop on a new phone sans a contract, which doesn't renew till July 2015 for me (iPhone 6s anyone?). My heart climbs up in my throat, and wants to snatch the phone out of the kids hand and tell them "No! That's a grown up toy!"
But the reality is that, it's not, not any more, kids have taken over the work of fancy gadgets, and they have settled in there better than any of us had, no matter how much of a techie you are. Kids can pick up an iPhone and with in 10 minute know how to shoot, edit and upload a semi decent video to YouTube. And they are only getting better at it!
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