I grew up in that generation that was between the baby boomers and the truly tech savvy generation that is a whiz with the smart phones and such. I remember the first computer Nick and I bouthg together--an 8 megabyte 286 PC. Just look at what computers can do now. Not to mention cell phones. Smart phones scare me just a bit. I don't think I want to be that truly connected.
Turbo has asked when he will get his own phone. He's 8. Not going to happen. He uses my DS when we travel and the trip is longer than an hour. Otherwise the kid is limited to the Wii or PS2. Yeah, not so sophisticated there either. I imagine we will be getting him a more advanced game system eventually, but for now we limit the time he gets to spend playing video games and send him out to ride his bike and play in the yard when we can.
Bruiser can turn the TV on and off. He does this when he thinks we need to go outside! He would know how to run the rest of the system, I know, if it wasn't out of his reach. He can press play on the DVD remote and loves to start the show. He also turns anything into a cell phone and carries on conversations just like he sees us doing.
TVs have come a long way too. Anyone remember having three channels and when the president was on your night was shot? We have a dish network system with something like 300+ channels and still there are times we can't find anything worth watching. The channel guide has changed how we channel surf, no longer guessing what the show is, we know exactly what it is and whether we want to watch it or not. Turbo can read better now and it's harder to skim past the shows he likes but I don't. He can see what they are now. Good cause he's reading, bad because he whines about wanting to watch what he wants to watch.
We have been really lucky. Turbo does not desire to much in the way of tech stuff. He has not asked for his own DS (yet), his own computer (yet) or a new game system (again-yet). He has asked about a cell phone (and was told that no he doesn't get one for a really long time), and he has asked for various video games. The requests have been fairly easy on the pocketbook, so far. I know the time is coming when the requests will be far more expensive. I'm trying to keep him as, well, tech stupid as I can. I want him to be a boy--playing outside, riding bikes, getting dirty, doing normal kid stuff that doesn't have to be plugged in as long as I can. And we have Bruiser coming up behind him, who will, I think, catch on to the tech stuff even faster than Turbo did. Man, we are in for it aren't we?
Go visit Jen at Sprite's Keeper for more tech/kid spins.
YEP. I can't even imagine what kind of technology changes will be coming at us in the next 10-15 years. How are we gonna be able to keep up?? It's scary.
ReplyDeleteGood for you. There really is nothing like childhood and the more they can just be kids the better.
ReplyDeleteI think its awesome that you want to let your boys use their play skills longer rather than be staring at a screen all the time. There is an amazing difference in the 10 years between me and my younger brother who grew up way more plugged in than us older kids did.
ReplyDeleteWe had our boys about 5 minutes before all the fancy stuff came out. Didn't do us any good. They are major geeks now even though they spent a lot of time playing outside on lots of acreage. They both swear that they don't want to have children unless they have acreage to raise them on. I'm pretty sure they are waiting just to piss me off.
ReplyDeleteI remember the president pissing me off when he took over prime time tv. Too funny.
ReplyDeleteI'm like you, I don't let them get too into the electronics and would rather swim or play instead.
Yes! I can comment!
ReplyDeleteI'm not all that jazzed about smart phones either. John thinks they're great, but being SO IN TOUCH bothers me since it makes me feel like I need to be accounted for every minute of the day when sometimes I just don't want to talk to anybody. With you on that.
You're linked!
I agree that the channel guide has changed the way you surf. I used to mark the TV guide so that I knew what shows I wanted to watch. Now, I just look at the channel guide to figure out what's on.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I remember when Princess Nagger started to be able to read - couldn't pull any fast ones on her and bypass shows she wanted to watch but I didn't. ;) Like Turbo, PN wants her own cell phone too - not gonna happen for a long time. Both hubby and I recently jumped on the SmartPhone bandwagon - but we're still treating them like our previous DumbPhones...his is 'somewhere' with a dead battery, and mine is in my purse (probably with a low battery) where I don't hear it ring - I usually only see messages and/or missed calls when I'm going somewhere - which is the only time I really have my phone with me. :)
ReplyDeleteThings sure have changed - and fast - from when we were growing up, hasn't it? It'll be interesting to see what the next 10 years has to offer. :) Great Spin! :)
Spin: Technological Kid