My brothers have children, and I’ve seen a lot of chikdren with tech recently. Like the smartwatch that has calling and GPS on it.
When would you introduce a child to technology as displays are quite addictive and exhausting. And the content even worse.
What technology is first on the line, TV or phone? What about E-ink?
How open is the software? Do you give them room to explore and become interested?
For me, we had a TV since almost always. Like really early 0-4 I don’t remember one. We got a Personal Computer around 5, that I sometimes used for games. We had a Gameboy colour, PS2 some time, but my first tech piece was a Nokia phone, as I started school. From ages PS2-3 I would often go to friends to play games. Around 10-11 I would get my first PC. I later got a laptop instead of it around 2013-14, and since then I would have a desktop as I built my own. But on the computer it was a lot of “gaming”. And always after school. I wouldn’t do homework because of it and well, my grades showed that. But family issues forced me to it as escapism. When Minecraft came on my radar I started to know of modding, textures, youtube and a lot more. And I would also attempt most of it. I don’t know how I didn’t get over the hurdle to become a coder.
If the parents are limiting screen time, teaching about the dangers of the internet and how to stay safe and not using any of it as a “babysitter”, then any age is fine; but most parents don’t even know how to do that for themselves.
I think there’s a ramp up needed and some education that should start early because kids will be on the internet as we are so it’s detrimental to them not teaching them how it works, what to be wary of and so on. This type of education should start early enough I think, around 6 or 7 years old.
It should be treated like a tool to be used sparingly to avoid depending on it. Example is also really important. If my kids saw me at the computer or smartphone all the time, after work, they would want to do the same thing.
We’re sons of parents that didn’t have access to technology as we are so they couldn’t guide us. At best they would’ve said “don’t spend too much time on it” or “I’ll take that away from you if don’t get good grades”. We’re among the first generations to have access to high speed internet and a world of content that was never available before.
The sensible approach to the matter I think. They also know the most disgusting truths about their companies so they have further motivation to do so!
As a new parent I have pondered this very question.
I intend to introduce tech slowly, beginning around the age of 5. I plan to utilize Kiwico kits.
Regarding the internet, I’ll just judge their maturity level and scale as needed but its going to be mostly walled garden / extensively curated. No social media until 16.
I envision a future where AI has taken over all marketing and stuff and children would in no way be equipped to deal or handle that.
I’m pretty on board with both @MetalizeYourBrain and @Dynamic_Gravity. I have nothing to add and nothing to critique, but what they’ve said is exactly what I had in mind. I also grew up in a very similar manner and age experiences with tech as you and Metalize. I think we were the guinea pigs and we’ve seen first hand what no limitations has wrought.
Children should learn how to navigate and apprechiate the real world first and we humans are equipped with the perfect tools for that. Haptic feedback is the best, improves fine motor skills needed for a lot of future basic skills like writing, this also creates lots of advantageous neural connections .
The opinion of the teachers in my friend circle (I know lots of teachers ) is that digital media is a 2nd class substitute at best to everything you can do physically at a early age.
At a low age 2 1/2 -5 children really have no palette, they will quicky consume most media related things in front of them. Its insane when I see parents handing ipads to a 3 year old just to “shut them up”. How can you cultivate some sense of “being and interacting with the world” when you are handing them basically the digital version of crack. Later the same parents complain “that they don’t ever listen”. Yeah you basically fostered ADHD or constant over stimulation.
But yes, I am basically also on board with @MetalizeYourBrain and @Dynamic_Gravity, introduce the Internet as tool first instead as a entertainment device.
Depends on the child’s interests, but earlier the better. Having grown up near a library, bus to a city to a computer, nature within a bike ride away to play in the forests. Us 80s kids were wild, dumb and roaming free. I was 12 when I got my Commodore C64 for Christmas had a Music software which I played with for ages, no way to save anything… 80’s/90’s…
I have a child on the way and due in the next two months so this has been a subject that I have been pondering. I think that there will be little to no significant screen time until they are double digits and their first computer will be a project for the two of us. I will build it with them and they will have to install the operating system and programs.
Might get them simple gaming systems before that like a steam deck with emulators but the objective is I want them to understand the games for what they are at a base level not just a interactive TV show like some newer games.
No Movies or TV without direct supervision. Most of the new stuff nowendays is trash.
Yeah you gotta watch out for those crack shows. EG Cocomelon.
Luckily, my kid only likes Bluey. That show is great for adults too. Low impact shows don’t stir up their brain so much. There are shows that just have moving shapes too. HearBearSensory on youtube and later on Ms. Rachel.
The biggest thing is that it’s okay to be bored. No one needs constant stimulation. So yeah throw the TV on for a bit so you can take a breather and do some chores and then turn it off when you’re done.
What do you do if you have a TV, do you just watch news on it once a day and keep it off until movie time?
And another that I have been pondering about for a really long while. Peer pressure and social groups. How can you make your kid not feel left out if the parents get cool things? I never got a console, so it was cool playing CoD Zombies at friends’. Social media also, many of the young have different apps depending on where they are, and some groups end up using different apps. Would you talk with other parents on limiting or changing apps?
I don’t watch TV much. I am going to have to talk with my wife about her habits and reducing how much she watches TV as she always has it on even if she isn’t actively watching something.
Probably not (hard to convince adults to change their habits) but also I plan to be living in a rural part of the Pacific Northwest in the next 3-5 years so I think the social pressures will be quite different than a metro area.
Maybe a bit of a boomer’ism but I had to buy any game/leisure activities that were videogames with my own money. Probably institute something similar. If they care enough about “feeling left out” they can work and pay for it out of their own pocket. I really want to emphasize computers/phones as utilitarian items that should be for accomplishing real world objectives and goals not necessarily for “just having it” or entertainment purposes.
It is nice that cheap “dumb phones” are making a comeback. I might consider getting them one of those re-pro Nokia phones when they are are old enough to not lose it and are starting to have activities away from parental supervision.
I think it is significantly open and at the same time enough of a high bar to jump to become a techy, if they want. But I could also end up spooking them and them becoming a mindless normie.
By tech I’m making the assumption that we’re talking about personal mobile computing that is internet connected, which also inevitably means social media connected.
From that definition I’d say that providing minors with access to booze or smoking is less detrimental to their well being than providing them access to that kind of tech. I’ve yet to see any instance of a minor who has benefited whatsoever from that kind of access. Meanwhile it’s hard to walk 20 feet in public without running into an obvious example of a minor who’s being preyed upon by the dopamine entrenched version of the modern internet.
As far as traditional technology I’m a big fan. Wheels are awesome.
Seriously though display based computer technology in my house is limited to family movie nights, private chat groups with family members and audiobooks off of locked down tablets.
) is that digital media is a 2nd class substitute at best to everything you can do physically at a early age.