Age for Technology?

Has technology run over our lives? What is the right age to give someone a cellphone? What is the right age to introduce technology to our kids? Has technology made our lives better...or worse?

Of course you know, as I am writing this I am using my laptop...which consumes most of my life. I am going to admit that. But I am not going to sit here and state that everyone should get off of Bluemoon because we are wasting our lives. No no. Please don't think that is what this is about.

But technology has become such a norm to everyone. Just think about how much technology you use during a day. It is hard to, in this day and age, imagine what our lives would be without it. There is no doubt that it has made our lives better, faster and easier in some aspects. We can now connect with people all over the world in a matter of seconds, explore the globe and meet new people like never before. We can travel the globe in a day by plane. We can watch movies anywhere we please. Cook anything we want at any time.

But I feel like it has also hurt us in a sense. Especially with cell phones. How many of us actually talk on a cell phone? I have heard of people looking at their phone when it rings, seeing who it is and then letting the call go to voicemail. Then they text right after and say "Why did you call me?" type thing. Why is it the norm to have long conversations over text message instead of calling? Or better yet, why don't we meet with that person (if possible) and talk face to face? Do people just not like talking face to face anymore? What about meeting in person and everyone is just texting? I have to say, what irks me the most is talking to someone and they are just texting away the entire time. It is like they are not paying attention and I am not worthy of their time. I am of course talking about constant texting. Not checking the time if you have to leave or getting an important call or even texting someone once because it is important. But spending more time texting than talking to the person you are out with.

Another thing that I see constantly is kids and technology. This is the one I really was wanting to discuss. What is the right age to give a child a cellphone? Or let them have their own laptop? I know some of the people on here have children of all ages...when do you think it is right to give them a cellphone? Or just to introduce technology in general such as iPads, computers, video games and TV?

Personally, I think some of this is just plain...well silly. I see articles for toilet training seats with iPads attached to it. Even swings with iPads attached to it. Personally, I feel that is way too young to give a child an iPad. What is the baby going to do? He/she is not going to know how to play a game at this age. Why do we have to place technology in there when what was previously done for years seemed to work? What is wrong with the swings with a little mobile on top of it?

I personally have two examples of this just recently.

1. I was at the mall, shopping around in a cooking store when I saw a stroller. The kid looked around.. I would say 2-3 or so (not exactly good at telling ages) but in his hands was an iPhone and he was presumably watching some TV show or playing a game (I think the latter). .... Why? So he doesn't pull things off of the shelves? So he doesn't sit there and cry? Why must we always distract children with technology?

2. I was at my neighbors house who was having a small get together and well, that meant drinking. This guy brought his son over (around 2 or so) to the party. [That is another whole topic that I would rather not get into on here] But the kid was stuck in front of the TV while his dad drank with the guys. The boy was left alone and ended up getting into some stuff. So they brought him in where everyone was drinking. They were going to give him a gameboy but ended up just giving him a phone to hopefully entertain him. He didn't seem to understand what to do with the game. When that didn't work, they stuck him in another room with another girl and myself to watch kids shows. Again, just giving a kid technology to keep them busy.

Back to the cellphone aspect. I hear children as young as 8 having cellphones. When I was a child, all I ever remember was the big brick type phones and pagers. Then my parents, when I was about 10, got a flip phone cell phone. And I thought that was about the coolest thing going. I myself got a cellphone at age 12 which is much more soon than others. Some people don't get phones until they are high school age. My parents wanted to give me one to check in with them when I was walking home from school. That was their reasoning.

If you have a child (or not), when is a good time to give them a cell phone? When you feel they are responsible enough? Perhaps it depends on the circumstance? What about just technology in general? Should iPads and computers be a normal gift for young kids? Tell me how you feel about technology in general.

I would like to thank you for reading this. This is my first post here and I hope that this will be a good discussion. I just am curious to know what other people think about technology in general.

Here is a link to an interesting picture about technology just in the classroom.

Most of my childhood was before computers became common place, the complaints I used to hear was about how calculators were a form of cheating and how important neat handwriting was, quite amusing given now everything is typed and if you do hand write something most people tend to print it rather than use cursive writing which is what we were made to write in.

Computers like anything else can be good or bad, I find myself getting addicted from time to time and take self enforced breaks from the net in particular which does my head good at times.

As far as your first and second example, I think parents/adults have always tried to keep kids entertained/silent with toys of some kind, an IPhone is just the modern variant, nothing new there really except the medium.

I didn't have a cell phone until I was 24 and they had been around for about 10 years prior to that!

I think it is a good thing for a kid to have, possibly with limitations to what he/she can or cannot access and call certainly, but it could be a rather useful tool to communicate with their parents and vice-versa especially in emergencies etc. I don't have kids so I don't know how young is too young in terms of being able to use one correctly. Computers are the main tool these days so kids should learn how to use them and anything associated with them from a young age, no different to kids on farms learning to use tractors from a young age, we freak out at that but on a farm it makes perfect sense.

My main thought about technology is what happens when it all goes down? The world stops, I see it at work all the time, something fails and stops everything, the other amusing thing I have noticed is programs seem to take on a life of their own, they develop problems much like humans develop ailments and then the tech gurus come in and they have no idea how to fix it and even when they kind of sort out the problem they end up creating another one which is worse, it just cracks me up.

It is something only the parental authority have an explicit right in deciding.

That said, growing up in the late-80's/early-90's, I always wanted to work with computers. I was a fan of the black-hat cracking counterculture of the time. Even in hindsight, talking to my old man, the best decision would've been for me to learn computer tech at such an early age.

When I'm being asked for advice about repairing, building, or otherwise diagnosing computers, I always revert to one simple basis: fucking learn. No, don't just RTFM but learn by experimentation; the majority of all computer problems are caused by end-user error that simply wouldn't happen if people knew the basics about computers and technology in general.

I can't see how having the cumulative total of human knowledge in your pocket could be a bad thing.

When I have kids, I rather imagine I'll get them a cheap tablet as soon as they start to develop motor skills. A touchscreen is a wonderful interface for giving them practice with fine motions, and the words-free navigation of a mobile OS would help, too.

Of course, one must be conscientious of what they have access to, but no kid I've ever spoken to even knows what a HOSTS file is, so I suspect I can keep them safe enough.

My son, who is one and a half, loves my phone and my kindle, he knows which apps are his, they are all learning apps that we play with together. The other day he said celebrate(in baby babble) because one of the apps teaches him how to spell and what letters say. The lady on the app said it and he looked at me then repeated it. I don't let him sit on it all the time, but he does enjoy the time he gets. I also live pretty far from my parents, and he uses my iPhone for face timing them. Its all about moderation and how you use the technology. We also watch a lot of Disney movies on Netflix before bed. However, my son would rather run around the house or the yard then play on my phone.

I think the biggest thing for me is, I don't have a child. So I can only speculate what I feel at the moment. But all of you bring up good points about how it is beneficial to development. I guess my biggest concern is that children will favor the technology and kind of forget about the outdoors. I certainly spend more time indoors now on my laptop than outdoors. When I was a child, I would play outside much more.

Cydramech- I grew up with technology as well. My mother was a technology teacher when I was in elementary school. So every day after school, I was in her room on the computer before we went home. I agree that it is crucial to teach skills at an earlier age. Learning how to use Microsoft Office, HTML, Java and such at an earlier age is better than trying to teach someone when they are 50. Besides, most high schools (if not earlier) and colleges require papers to be typed in specific ways and you need to learn how to translate into PDF's and things of that nature which you don't exactly learn when younger in school. (At least, I didn't learn that part. Perhaps for kids younger than me, that was included in their technology classes). By the way, I loved your quotes. Thank you for sharing.

Trygon- I was reading something along the lines like "What would be the most difficult thing to tell someone who lived in like the 60's?" And one of the responses was "In my hand, I have a computer more powerful than what we used to get to the moon and it has infinite knowledge. But I just use it to look up cat pictures and prove people wrong." or something like that. I got a kick out of that. I don't even know what a HOSTS file is... So I had to look that one up on google haha. Guess you do learn something new every day. But that is another thing. Making sure that you keep children safe. In the day and age of hearing more and more about online predators...you just want people to be safe. I see more and more commercials about Internet Safety. Being careful of what you post, how you say things, etc. because that is another thing that causes issues. Making sure what websites your child is going to and making sure they aren't giving out their personal information to strangers.

My_Apocalypse_Pony- I am glad you posted because I wanted to see what someone thought who had a young child. Since I do not (as I stated above), I can just kind of see from the outside and think "Wow, that looks silly" or something like that. But there are apps tailor made for children and to develop their skills. Also there are special websites as well. It goes back to kids shows even like Sesame Street, Barney and all that were used to help teach children about shapes or colors or whatever else. (It has been forever since I saw those shows so I don't even remember haha). But I am also glad to hear that he isn't attached to your phone. I guess that is another thing I think about on this topic. That if you introduce technology too early and too much, will the child become too addicted to it? I know there is the thing of moderation but what happens if you only give them a certain amount of time...but then they ask for more or they seem like that is all they care about?

I think it's just something we need to get used to. Technology is becoming more and more prevalent in our lives every day. Whereas when I was a child, I'd be given books to read, now children are giving I-pads or a kindle. I don't see a problem with it, as technology is something they are going to have to learn and the sooner they are given access to it, the sooner they can do so.

Personally, I don't carry a cell-phone with me, unless I need it. I find them intrusive and that the majority of calls/texts serve no purpose. If it's urgent, I'm generally easily found. As for kids having cell-phones, I'd give one with ability to only take and receive calls to certain numbers at a young age, but probably not a full access phone until they hit their teenage years.

One of my major concerns is that children get enough outside play time and exercise, and that they socialise face-to-face with other children. The other is that there's already some evidence that technology is changing the way the brain functions and I worry, with the ease of access to factually incorrect information that supports already entrenched views, that independent and critical thinking as well as research abilities will be inhibited. How many times have you have a Wikipedia link thrown your way in place of a well considered argument?