NET RESULTS:It possible to introduce children to technology at too early an age? asks JOHN COLLINS
WITH PARENTING apparently now considered an Olympic sport by most Irish parents, I have a terrible admission to make. The most common phrase I hear out of my two daughters mouths is: “Dad, can I play on your iPhone?”
Yes, we go to the park, go for the occasional hill walk, even swim in the Irish Sea together a couple of times a year, but at the first sign of boredom the girls reach for the iPhone. Steve Jobs would be proud of them.
Lately I’ve been wondering whether this is an example of bad parenting on my part or am I simply giving them a head start for the smart economy that we will miraculously have created by the time our current crop of primary school kids hit the world of work.
The vast majority of my career as a journalist has involved writing about technology. Yet I still retain a healthy degree of scepticism: why do technology companies only ever release “solutions” – it is either a piece of hardware, software or, increasingly these days, a web service.
Still, it is fair to say I have been, and continue to be, an advocate of the benefits of technology. But is it possible to introduce children to technology at too early an age?
One of the great ironies of this era of “social media” is that, while it has seen an exponential increase in the number of digital relationships we maintain, it has done little to enhance our friendships with those closest to us. Even the couple I know who communicate over Twitter even when they are in the same room would probably concede that!
Look at the glamorous TV ads currently running for mobile network Meteor, which now brands itself as “your social network”. Bright young things at a rocking party update Facebook, watch YouTube videos and share photos while having a fabulous time.
The reality is much more prosaic. You are down the pub using your smartphone to “socialise” with your “friends” on Facebook when your real friend returns from the toilet and wonders why you have your face buried in an electronic screen rather than talking to the person right beside you.
Bad enough that I find myself reaching for my iPhone in all sorts of socially-inappropriate settings but do I really want to introduce the next generation to the same temptations?
Besides the risk that immersion technology might make them anti-social, there are cost and health concerns as well for the modern parent.
They might only be five and seven but the Holy Grail for our kids is to figure out our iTunes passwords and to get a “phone with one of those cards in it”.
Needless to say, neither has been provided, not least because I don’t fancy my hard-earned cash being given to Apple for the latest Barbie game or upgrade to “Super Mom”.
At the risk of sounding like an old git, in my day it was down to the local arcade with a couple of 10p coins for a game of Space Invaders followed by Asteroids.
Today’s children expect games and entertainment on tap regardless of where they are. There were glum faces in rural France this year when we explained that it’s not possible to download new games anywhere in the world due to a small matter of network coverage. There were also explanations about how those nice people at the mobile phone company tend to extract rather a large amount of money for downloading “free” games when you’re not at home.
Despite the reservations, my gut instinct is that technology exposure at an early age is on balance a good thing. Yes, there are surveys and research published every week about the dangers from mobile phone radiation and violent computer games, not to mention the evil predators that await children online.
Just this week I read about a new study from the University of California at San Francisco which suggests too much time on computers without a break reduces your capacity to learn, retain information and come up with new ideas.
But whether any of us like it or not, pervasive technology is becoming a reality. By exposing our children to it at an early age surely we are just giving them the life skills that they are going to need later.
It is interesting that products designed specifically for kids – such as the interactive Leap Pad books – have always held little attraction in our house.
Instead it’s the web browser on the PC and even more so the iPhone that have captured the attention. Isn’t this a sign that our children are doing what kids have done since time began – trying to emulate their parents.
As their grandparents smile at the kids’ technical prowess, I remind myself that the current crop of parents spend an awful lot more time agonising over how to bring up their children than actually getting on with it.
As if on cue our eldest woke up at 6 o’clock one morning this week and began to read a book.
A few hours later as she sat on the couch beside me as I checked my email and her sister watched TV, she proudly informed me she would finish the book by the end of the week.
Thankfully she doesn’t realise you can get ebooks on my iPhone.
