Today's tween and teen consumers have been surrounded by electronic technology since birth. They take their media as for granted as the previous generation took whatever it was they experienced: Walkman? Desktop PC? Video camera? Contemporary kids are unimpressed--Got iPad?--though expectant their access to electronic gadgets will continue, unimpeded by parents. Parents, who once did without the gadgets they now dish out to their offspring, are more aware of costs and assume there should at least be some appreciation. Meanwhile, entitled children shrug unimpressed shoulders and upgrade with their own money or nag until they are provided with all the latest and--for awhile, anyway--greatest devices.
Parents worry about the consequences their pioneering children may face, using the devices they provide. Their children's young minds are dispersing at warp speed to wander paths where parents not only cannot lead--in many cases they don't even know how to follow. Are the children of this generation at risk in a digital "Lord of the Flies?" Are they being led away by the shiny, high-tech, multi-media Pied Piper, where, alone in an electronic forest, they make easy prey?
Perhaps the predators do "come out at midnight," but parents have ways of keeping them at bay. This new technology may have its sharp edge, but we don't need to entirely take it away. Instead we need to teach children how to use it in age appropriate ways, without harm to themselves or others. This might require a quick education for the parents, to bring them up to speed.By strengthening their own understanding of new media and making sure their kids know how to resist attractions that pose harm, parents will know for sure: "The kids are alright."
They won't always seem so shallow, either. Young kids used to yak away on the phone; now they text away, thumbs flying. But in time the conversations change, regardless of the medium facilitating them. Children's interests and the topics they discuss will mature. When it does, the skills and tools these children have mastered will allow them a whole new level of connection, new ideas launching from broad mind-bases with a reach their parents could not have conceived of.
And in no time at all these kids will be grown and getting their turn to generate their versions of new technology. Eventually they will have their own kids, who will likewise be born into a new set of technological advances and advantages; and then their parents--today's digital generation--may find themselves shaking their heads at the audacity and entitlement.
Webcast: What Kids Learn When They Create with Digital Media
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