“As a geek, what irks me the mos
Technology is not the problem. W
assumptions and our lack of faith in o
We run: We know we cannot and will
never understand technology enough
to keep up with them. It is completely
alien to the way in which we learned
to survive on the planet and there is
so much negative press about it that
we just ban it all together. We did
not have computers, cell phones, the
Internet, Facebook, computer games
or Xboxes and we have managed to
survive and flourish in this world so
our kids should also be able to without
all this technological paraphernalia.
W
ell we do what humans
do
when
they’re
terrified – we fight, we
run, or we freeze.
We fight: We find ourselves
continuously at war with our kids
over technology. We freak out,
become extraordinarily strict about
screen time and device usage
and fluctuate between allowing
it and banning it all together. Our
children think we’re unreasonable,
we’re at our wits end and we blame
the ongoing angst in our family
squarely at the foot of technology
We freeze: We accept that we cannot
even begin to understand this world
that they are so much a part of, so
we give up. We allow them free reign
to do whatever it is they need to do
and retreat into our old-fashioned
world of books and newspapers and
the afternoon soap. We give them
whatever they need to keep them
happy like a contract at the local
Internet Cafe, a new plasma TV or a
game they say is awesome called GTA.
As a geek, what irks me the most is that
technology gets blamed all the time.
Technology is not the problem. We are.
It is our fear, our lack of knowledge,
our assumptions and our lack of faith
in ourselves and in our children that is
the problem.