Sure we wonder what our children will be like in the future, but I have more say in that than the amount of control I have over the future world for our children. What will the world be like in 50 years when I am 85 and my daughter are possibly grandmothers themselves?
I believe the Internet has sprung this leak inside our minds. We demand, we believe we need, we expect quick fixes, fast solutions, and answers available with a click of a button.
But the frontiers have disappeared and our children's minds first face a digital screen, a blinking cursor, instead of card catalogs, weather reports in newspapers, blades of grass in an open field. I've read numerous articles and books about the positives and negatives of exposure time to computers, TVs, cell phones, iPads, etc, but it's not so much as 'exposure' that I worry about but the fact that our children will never know a life without all things digital.
How do we teach our children that answers are earned, solutions are the result of time and energy, fixes are rewards of creativity and work?
Modeling. I need to model it for my girls.
I should stop "Googling it."
I should turn my cell phone off for the entire day.
I should purchase a newspaper and read it with them.
What I'd really love to do is unplug it all. Get rid of the TV, the cell phone, the iPad, the computer. Physically it's not impossible. Unplug, pack up and put them away in a non-accessible place.
But how hard would it be to do the day-to-day functions in our society today?
Maybe not as hard as I fear, maybe.
