Last week, we were over at some friends' house, and I was watching as my friend helped an older relative send an email on her computer. My friend got her to the correct screen, typed in the subject line for her, then clicked in the body of the email so she could begin typing her message. Barely a minute later, she needed assistance again, as she'd accidentally scrolled the screen down and lost what she'd already typed. My friend helped her retrieve her message, and sent it for her once she was done typing.
I say this not to pick on her. My dad is the same way. Lots of people's dads (and moms and sisters and brothers and friends) are the same way. Not everyone is computer literate, and I understand that. Except...
I kind of don't understand that. For better or worse, technology plays a huge role in our daily lives. From using the internet to find information, or make connections, or be entertained... to communicating through emails, texts, and videos... to using Google maps, online calendars, and GPS units.
I blog,
pay my bills online,
use social networking,
read the news,
digitally edit pictures,
and otherwise gather, share and store information.... from words to pictures to everything in between.
The vast amount of information and ability that's at my, and my children's, fingertips, is staggering. I couldn't imagine not utilizing it just because it's intimidating, or new, or different. I couldn't imagine not learning how to use it, and in fact embracing it, for everything it has to offer.
It's finicky at times, to be sure. It's frustrating. It sometimes gives us too much information, and it's sometimes arguably one fine double-edged sword. But I could never deny how much the internet, and technology in general, has enriched our lives.
My boys are all extremely competent on a computer. Tegan - one month away from turning three - has recently learned how to work a mouse, and is loving the whole new world that's been opened up to her: playing games, coloring pictures, learning about shapes and colors and letters. She learns about all those things off the computer as well, but she's also learning and practicing a skill that she will use all her life, in a myriad of ways. Probably in ways that you and I can't even imagine now.
Look at that concentration.
I'm sure like the rest of us she will learn to love it, and at times hate it,
but she will never be afraid of it.
2 comments:
I've just recently (partly in my effort to say "yes" more) have been letting my kids use the computer more. The Ten Year Old is able to find the sites they like (funbrain pbskids webkinz) and all of them are pretty good at navigating around the games and site. My four year old is the real prodigy though. He plays adult computer games like Command and Conquer. It's crazy. :)
Paxton was like your 4 year old. Now at 10, he knows his way around a computer just as well - and sometimes better - as I do. He wants to be a video game designer when he's older :-)
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