Technology Is the Only Language Your Kids Have Ever Known
There are days when I feel like a dinosaur.
If you're over 40, especially over 50, the world you live in looks dramatically different from the world you grew up in, particularly in the area of technology.
Computers, cell phones, social media, the internet - none of it existed when we were kids.
While I sometimes moan and groan about some of the pitfalls of the internet, the reality is that its impact on our lives will continue to grow.
There's no turning back.
The monster is here to stay.
To show you just how different our kids' world is, let me tell you a little story.
This happened in the middle school I used to teach in.
I was in the guidance office one day when a sixth-grader came in to the use the phone.
Most likely it was about missing homework or lunch money.
(Don't get me started about how when I was a kid I would have taken the consequences at school for missing homework, and found someone who would have helped me out with lunch!) So the phone was a standard office desk phone, mounted on the wall.
The child was instructed to dial "9" and then the phone number, which he did.
And then...
he asked...
"Where's the send button?" We adults looked at each other, incredulous.
How could he not know how to use a basic phone? And then we realized that this boy represents an increasing number of kids who do not have a land line in their home.
They don't know any other way.
So while some of us (self included) can reminisce about using a dial phone, with a prefix based on a neighborhood (my number was WA3-1199, WA being short for Wadsworth), that's all it is...
a memory.
When you complain about how your kids live on their cell phone, essentially a mini-computer, remember this: they don't know any other way.
This is the only world they have ever known.
Technology is the language they learned and have spoken, essentially since they were born.
Most children ten and under have a 'digital identity' from the day they were born.
Just look at the pictures posted online from day one.
Facebook is full of them.
If you want them to socialize face-to-face, you'll have to create the opportunities for that to happen...
and arrange for some tech-free time, too.
Oh, for the good old days...
OMG, I sound like my parents!
If you're over 40, especially over 50, the world you live in looks dramatically different from the world you grew up in, particularly in the area of technology.
Computers, cell phones, social media, the internet - none of it existed when we were kids.
While I sometimes moan and groan about some of the pitfalls of the internet, the reality is that its impact on our lives will continue to grow.
There's no turning back.
The monster is here to stay.
To show you just how different our kids' world is, let me tell you a little story.
This happened in the middle school I used to teach in.
I was in the guidance office one day when a sixth-grader came in to the use the phone.
Most likely it was about missing homework or lunch money.
(Don't get me started about how when I was a kid I would have taken the consequences at school for missing homework, and found someone who would have helped me out with lunch!) So the phone was a standard office desk phone, mounted on the wall.
The child was instructed to dial "9" and then the phone number, which he did.
And then...
he asked...
"Where's the send button?" We adults looked at each other, incredulous.
How could he not know how to use a basic phone? And then we realized that this boy represents an increasing number of kids who do not have a land line in their home.
They don't know any other way.
So while some of us (self included) can reminisce about using a dial phone, with a prefix based on a neighborhood (my number was WA3-1199, WA being short for Wadsworth), that's all it is...
a memory.
When you complain about how your kids live on their cell phone, essentially a mini-computer, remember this: they don't know any other way.
This is the only world they have ever known.
Technology is the language they learned and have spoken, essentially since they were born.
Most children ten and under have a 'digital identity' from the day they were born.
Just look at the pictures posted online from day one.
Facebook is full of them.
If you want them to socialize face-to-face, you'll have to create the opportunities for that to happen...
and arrange for some tech-free time, too.
Oh, for the good old days...
OMG, I sound like my parents!
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