My future family and Technology...

I may need to refer back to back to this blog in five to 10 years, but right now I will write it as I see it.

I do not have a family of my own. I am an only child so I have only my parents' techniques and those of close aunts and uncles to see how I will likely raise a child of my own.  Now I am not referring to curfews, when they get a car, if they have to have a job, etc. I am strictly making notice of how I will incorporate technology into my future offspring's life.

I look at myself and I know that I am very connected to technology.  I use the computer every single day for numerous hours a day, probably more than I should and I always have my cell phone.  The other thing I want to mention is that I'm 25 and got my first cell phone when I was in 8th grade...so like 13. And my family has had a computer since I was in 5th grade. (Just to preface my later point)

One thing that I find different from me compared to some of my counterparts both in my job and in my generation is that even though I have my cell phone with me, I am not always ON it or checking it. I find this rather bothersome.  However, my father --- well I would say he is ADDICTED to his iPhone...so much that if I still lived at home I would definitely set regulations as to when he needed to put it away.

Yeah right, like that would work. But I refer you to this article: Is Your Mobile Device the New Cigarette?, Dad!

Anyways back on point.

When my future offspring come along...who knows what kind of technology they would have/need, but I will tell you if I was going off of RIGHT NOW, my children would not have anything more than a simple flip phone from 13 to 18.  I have several reasons for this.  You can still text with one of those phones, but it is more difficult.  Hand-eye coordination is key and PAYING ATTENTION to what you are writing also helps...both great for development of life skills.

Second thing, the phone would not be allowed in their possession past 10 p.m. unless it was a weekend and they were out. NOTHING good happens to 13-18 year-olds from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m., NOTHING.  Even if I educated my kids on sexting, the fact that whatever you write you can't take back, kids make mistakes, kids fall to peer pressure, kids are kids.

And the last thing, no child of mine will ever have a computer in their bedroom.  I was not allowed to have one in mine and it is something I will definitely pass down to the line.  Mostly because NOTHING good can happen when technology is mixed with a child, pre-teen and teenager and the fact that they could have non-stop unsupervised access to A LOT of things, even if you put parental controls on it.

Basically I think that parenting is now getting more difficult just like educating children is getting more difficult because of the technologies that are constantly trying to distract.  My parents I'm sure never thought they would have to deal with cell phone plans and Internet and then WiFi in our house, but its something that any one considering children will now be judged on.

I don't know about you but I don't ever want to live in a society where it is child abuse to take away or not provide certain technologies.  Hopefully that never happens.

Until next time...GradGirl 3.0