Monday, March 05, 2007


My coworker was telling me how she does not have cable television at home, nor does she allow her kids to use a computer. Instead she claims that she encourages her children to read and find ‘olden day’ ways to amuse themselves.

At first I thought “that’s a great idea.” I for one am sick of kids that sit around playing with their play stations all day.

Then I wondered how these kids are going to compete the new generation of techie kids out there. I remember when computers first came to Dubai; my mum took a course on how to use it. I learned from good ole trial and error (I would like to say here that I was a whiz at DOS.) Fathead (my brother) surpassed us all. He plays intricate games with people worlds away and even made three short films which actually won a few awards.

I am all for encouraging kids to read good old fashioned books, to actually remember their times table instead of googling it and to have some hop skotch type fun. Yet we also have a responsibility to let them progress, without selfishly withholding what deem as bad. Sure her kids are probably more innocent about sex and life in general, but I can’t help but think that are also more ill equipped to deal with the real world.

And hello, what about blogs…you know these kids would love to blog!

9 comments:

SimplEnigma said...

Y'know, I never thought I'd be saying this, but I kinda agree with her philosophy...I never grew up with computers either, and now you'd never be able to tell.

I think when kids are old-fashionedly (is that a word?) intelligent, it takes them no time at all to catch on when they're older. A kid that reads books and learns things by deductive reasoning instead of Google would pick up computer skills in no time.

bitsandgiggles said...

I was talking about this very same thing with a friend of mine last night (when we weren't talking about prostate exams.)

I wish my little cousin (now 16) would have spent more time reading when she was younger. Now it's all Guitar Hero and YouTube. Fun (of course), but there's not any balance to it.

Crankyputz said...

I agree there needs to be a balance....and to Simple Enigma's point, kids need to have a good foundation of math, reading and writting skills.....over the weekend I watched a speech by Obama, where he said something like, our kids need to stop thinking that by conjuicating their verbs they are acting white....its nonsense....couldn't agree more....speaking good english, is not acting white or black,

Mad Bull said...

Was going to suggest a balance, but everyone already has...

Abeni said...

Am all for reading so I would definiely encourage more of gool old books

Jdid said...

everything in moderation. dont think i'd leave out the computers and tv but do they really need the playstations and xboxes? sometimes i wonder

that girl said...

this is coming up in a class i'm taking - dependence on technology instead of brains. we need both.

Dee said...

what is "the real world"?
some might say that ppl who watch tv and deal in computers don't actually live in it

what have we become where we need machines in order to survive?

Anonymous said...

Dooming the children to a life in the past. Yeah I agree they need to know old time values but they need to exist in a modern world. Technology is an integral part of that modern society.