Oct 16 2007
Internet age kids
Kids are getting tech savvy at very early age and the average age of electronics usage has declined from 8.1 to 6.7% in the last 2 years.
Talking about computers in particular, I wonder if it Is because we parents have taken the laptop to the living room. No matter what our underlying profession is, computers and internet have become an integral part of one’s life. Especially in the Western world. Work communicates via emails, word documents, excel spreadsheets, ppts. Friends prefer talking to each others via emails / google talks/ IM’s as they are more flexible and fit into their time pressed schedules. Leave alone friends, grand parents who are 60+ are internet savvy these days. A decent lot knows to email, start their web cam lusting to see their kids/grand kids, download pictures and what not. And the ever growing communities, social networking, blogging sites add spice. Its all not bad. It bridges the physical distance, long distance does not seem to hit as much, as we get to know each others whereabouts every so often. Add to it a visual moving video, the physical distance shrinks, though we might live in opposite ends of the globe. Day to day life has become more productive and efficient. Husband might have an hours time in between 2 customer meetings, asks the wife if he can finish up the weekend grocery. By the time husband reaches the grocery store, wife has made an extensive list and emailed him, which the husband looks up in his blackberry.
That said, there a conflict of interest to me, when I put kids into picture. Traces of which I am starting to see in my own household, my daughter’s[almost 3 years] growing addiction to computers. She is ready to give up her favorite candy for few minutes on the laptop. Her attraction towards laptop is understandable though undesirable at this age. It is similar to the much hated colorful TV, just much more worse and intense as it is interactive and gives them a sense of freedom and control. She is not to be blamed, its the exposure. She grew up seeing both her parents with their laptop or the blackberry almost all the time. Not that the parents are addicted or anything of that sort, its just our work. We have a turn around time of 4 hours to our customers 24 x 7. Agreed, not every other family is in our shoes, where laptop and internet are not gadgets, they are our bread and butter. But I also think I am not too far fetched to assume kids in other households are exposed to a good extent. Also, we are starting to see more and more of us taking work back home OR just working from home OR working late nights if you are involved with offshore development…
What triggered me to write this post is this
My daughter wanted to play Dora adventures. There are a few others she likes, like the barney, fisher price, pbskids.org , Thomas Train, though Dora and this princess thingee are her latest fascination. The entry into the Dora game is by typing your name. She knows to verbally spell her name and can recognise all the alphabets and letters. The surprise element was when she clicked on the input box and typed her name, all by herself. It doesn’t end here. She mixed up 2 letters from her name. I was looking from behind and told her letter x needs to come before y. She hit the delete button without even looking at the keyboard and corrected it !
She can navigate the sites effortlessly. Switching from listening to music, to picking the game she wants to play, going back and choosing another game if she does not like the one she is playing with.
Another incident which left me thinking. I type Dora OR Thomas train in the google search tool bar. The search result page appears and the intended site is the very first result. She has watched me do this a few times now. This past Saturday, she wanted to do online coloring of Thomas train. It was not laptop time [I am pretty strict about this, though husband lets her get away with it once in a while] , we were getting ready for lunch. I told her just that. However, laptop was in the living room center table. Husband was lounging behind her playing with our little 4 month old. She couldn’t resist reaching to the laptop as I was not in the vicinity and husband got curious to see her in action. This is what he notices. She types few alphabets on the google search tool bar, hits enter. It sure takes her to the google search page. She clicks on the first link and it takes her to some web site. She speaks aloud she did wrong-wrong. Hits the browser back button. clicks on the google search tool bar. Deletes the previously entered alphabets, enters a new set of random alphabets, hits Enter again. Gets to the search page again and clicks on the first link. Then claims the laptop is tottooed (broken). Its not working.
She leaves us flabbergasted with the way she uses the laptop’s inbuilt mouse. The hand co-ordination. With one finger on the click button, aother on the touch pad , how comfortably she can drag an object from the left/right panels into the working area. How she knows she has to click on the arrows to get more options OR that there is a tab on the top that will take her to different views.
All this when computers[and TV] are restricted[to her] in my household. She gets about 20 minutes in the morning and about 15 minutes in the evening any given typical day. Though on the weekends she does manage to get few additional minutes.
No, no she is no Einstein, neither are we grooming her to be one. Nor am I claiming I am happy about all this. In fact its my worry that she will lose out on the traditional methods of learning, In addition to health concerns of reduced physical activity, over stimulation and vision issues. She does her paper/pen drawing sketching activities in school and in house too. But the glow and the excitement is not remotely comparable with when she does the same with computers. She loves art, drawing, sketching. But only on the computer. She knows to write few alphabets, A, T , H the ones with straight lines and shows no interest in writing other alphabets, but she can type in anything on the keyboard. Its the exposure. And the attractiveness of today’s sophisticated softwares. The combination of bold colors, big fonts and sound.
At the same time, we don’t want to completely restrict her either. Very soon cyber world will become more of a necessity rather than a conscious choice.
She is only 3 years old, so its not a matter of concern right now, OR is it?. As long as we are able to restrict the time she spends in front of one. But, how long?
Just thoughts and questions, no answers at this point…
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[...] Just thoughts and questions, no answers at this point… « Website accessibility for the visually impaired? [...]
[...] Cutting Corners wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHer attraction towards laptop is understandable though undesirable at this age….However, laptop was in the living room center table….It was not laptop time [I am pretty strict about this, though husband lets her get away with it once in a while] , we were getting ready for lunch. I told her just that….She couldn’t resist reaching to the laptop as I was not in the vicinity and husband got curious to see her in action. This is what he notices…. [...]
sometimes its really amazing. My 19 months old, even before 1 – 1.5 months, knew how to click the mouse( he also has his hands exactly like how we do, I really felt like clicking a snap , at the way he holds the mouse). When we reduce all the windows, he just keeps clicking the mouse until a window opens. YOu won’t believe, once he kept clicking randomnly and I found he had opened a folder on the desktop( ofcourse not intentional). Not just this..when I open skype, he knows his grandpa is going to talk in sometime
isn’t that amazing? But I am an internet addict, whichis very bad..but its just because I have nothing to do for the moment an dI am sure its going to change. Sometimes I am amazed at the way he does, sometimes I am worried or scared that I am not teaching him good things….
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arrgee, c’mon. Its not that bad. But, yes we should sure find a balance and make sure they are exposed to other things as much.
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Oh. That was an eye opener DDmom. My poppin is also very fond of the Compitah. We don’t let her use it at all (we as in me, DH uses it to his convenience as a baby sitter). I don’t know if it’s all bad though. See, this is the internet generation. If we who made acquaintance with Google so late in our lives, can’t live without it today, what about them?
We talk about TV all the time as evil, but the computer seems somehow tame because we control what we see on it mostly. But what she’s doing with Google and clicking websites, gives me both a chill down the spine and a bit of admiration too – you have to give it to her, she’s smart !
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Poppin’s mom, you said it. It is the internet generation and if we can’t live without google, what is expected out of them? And that’s precisely what freaks me out. Look at the obesity rate in Western world. Do you see any link between kids spending more and more time on Myspace instead of running in the playground and sweating? Or is it just me reading too much? I am not saying it bad. I am just struggling to find a balance.
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Its a valid concern. though not all time on computer has to equal games.. thought its very early, she can start programming in html or basic when she gets a little older.. who knows she will grow up and becomes a very famous algorithmist
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I used the word ‘games’ loosely. She is hooked on fisher price alphabet , numbers and shapes as well.. And yes, we are in the process of sorting out legal issues in hiring her as our stress test engineer.
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I think you are giving her very limited exposure …which is a great thing. Kids have to be exposed to the computer eventually. The fact is, this is a tech age and this is our new childhood ‘normal’. But I am against indiscreet use of t.v and comp for very little kids. We as parents will have a new challenge that our parents did not have. We can only shud use common sense in making the best decisions in this area.
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I am totally with you on TV. Its an idiot box, period. But as you said, computers will be a part of our day to day life. The struggle is to find a balance.
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Totally unrelated to the post – it “bridges” the physical distance? LOL! Could nt help it, Sorry Ddmom!
Coming to the post, D is super smart. Its of course scary too bacause as a parent we have to be responsible. Right now, though Ashu is very much excited about the laptop, its forbidden for her. But the school Im planning to send her has Computer time for the kids and may be she ll become more savvy. Trouble for me!
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The first part – Lets cut a deal. You don’t dig into pre-kids era and in turn I promise to delete the nick names post of yours I had saved to use it in future.
The post related part – She is not smart or anything of that sort, she is getting too much exposure. She still cannot hold the pencil properly, but see the way she types on the keyboard. And I feel guilty to be I(and husband) responsible for it.
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I guess we have to bring up kids in the generation that they are born in and I think computers are going to be integral to our kids’ education, whether we like it or not. What is debatable, I guess is the age of introduction…
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Welcome to my blog.
You hit it right. Its the age. It’s not that I don’t want her to use computers, but due do that exposure she refuses to sit down with a crayon and paper and paint the old fashioned way. Also, it is making her less patient is what I feel.
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Hey Rbdans,
It drives me crazy when they even throw a tantrum demanding laptop time or demand a laptop for themselves. I would rather prefer if they screamed and jumped and played rather than sitting at the laptop for pbskids or their latest craze now ‘hooked on spelling’. True it does help bridging the gap but I think 3 or 4 is too young to be introduced to the laptop. Nice, thought provoking post.
It was like you were writing about Madhu and Nandhu. With them things have gone to an extreme and I have password locked my laptop – Thank God they still haven’t figured that out
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Yes, 3 or 4 is too young to get introduced. Though they don’t seem to need an introduction. They are growing up seeing all these gadgets and when they see parents sitting on it all day, they are bound to get attracted Or distracted..
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A little scary. Don’t know what to say, will think a bit more.
I do feel that we need to learn how to exist without technology though. I hate feeling devastated when my PC malfunctions or even when the Net is off. Gotta make sure the little ones don’t grow up as slaves to the machines.
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Yup, thats what I think too. Exposure is one thing, addiction is scary.
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Share your concern DDMom. For Nikki, the most tempting items to reach out for are laptop, cellphone, remote (in that order). Once he reaches for it, he knows he has to hit the keys, so he just bangs them with his palm/fist. The “Alt” key on my laptop is already gone. It is difficult to keep it out of his reach because I work from home on some days and will be on the floor working, I even take it to the kitchen. Hmm, should think about limiting the exposure.
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The Alt key is gone? Just you wait. My laptop does not have ‘c’ alphabet key working. This girl gets the external keyboard, puts into the right socket and presses the key when she is “working” on her Fisher price alphabet game.
Limiting exposure is what we can do, if we cannot avoid taking laptop usage in front of them..
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thought-provoking post, RB Dans! it is true what you said abt laptop pervading all rooms in our house – and landing right on the bed. it would be tempting for any kid to explore that. but is it that harmful for her? maybe not if you do what you already do – restrict usage. actually even better would be if you have a spare old one lying around, give it to her w/o internet so she can type the heck out of it, and then she’ll get bored and won’t be too interested in it anymore!
you ahve to admit tho, that was pretty damn smart of her to figure out google search. another reason to not teach her to read/write so soon
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Kodi’s mom, the harm I see at this point is over stimulation, irritability if not given and lesser patience with non high-tech stuff..
Oh ya, we did try giving her another laptop playing DVD’s. But she wants interaction! You wont believe if the stores have flagged us for key replacements.
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Though I am quite taken aback that she can effortlessly navigate sites … I must admit, she is a smart kid. So far, we have managed to get Cantaloupe away from the Laptop. But sometimes, I am tempted to introduce it to her, given the internet age we live in… but have not gotten there yet.
Good post !
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[...] too long ago, I had written a post on my daughters fascination with laptop. I must have become more tolerant and more accepting since then. I have come to accept that [...]