Hi-Tech Kids

The children really think they know it all when it comes to technology and do not hide their exasperation when I fail to deliver when trying to work the DVD or even just change the channel on the TV. So it is gratifying to hear that children aren’t always so savvy. A friend of mine works in the office of a secondary school and pupils occasionally come in to use the school phone. This is a standard desk phone with a receiver and curly cord attached to the base unit. Most children are so used to mobile handsets at home that they have not even seen one like this, much less know how to use one.

My friend watches amused as they punch in buttons on the keypad. “You have to lift the receiver first” she points out helpfully.

It seems they are as uncomfortable with the old as I am with the new.

I remember as a child, the first time we got a cordless phone, a great brick of a thing with a metal aerial you had to pull up. Such excitement, we were so impressed with the range it gave us. My Dad phoned the old lady next door on some pretext or another, then walked, still talking, round to her front door and rang the bell.

“Hang on a minute Peter,” she said, “I must go, there is someone at the front door.” 

Her face was a picture as she opened the door to him, still with the phone to his ear.

Children now expect so much from technology. I was in the car with Rachel the other day and a song she liked came on the radio. When it had finished she told me to play it again.

 “I can’t Rachel,” I said “it is not a CD, the radio DJ decides which songs to put on, it is not up to me, I am not in charge.”

“Tell HIM to play it again” she insisted.

“I can’t , I can’t talk to him, he is playing these songs for lots of people, not just for us.”

It is quite a hard concept for them, particularly when someone phones my mobile and their voice comes out through the radio on the hands-free, as in this case the children can talk to them and they get a reply. Why wouldn’t they be able to do the same with Christian O’Connell?

My father remembers as a child thinking there was a man inside their wireless. It was a big set and could probably have fit a small man inside. He never quite worked out when the music came on where the band might be hidden.

Our children are so spoiled, they can pause live TV when it is time for dinner. They can watch their programmes ‘on demand’ or on ‘catch up’ whenever they want.

I remember feeling very resentful when I had to miss the cliff hanger on the end of Neighbours because tea was ready, or someone rang to speak to me on the telephone in the other room. (That was often my future husband who’d call in the middle of Neighbours.)

My Mum’s reaction to my protests was always “you can record it and watch it later” but it was always such a faff. You could never find an empty video tape, or it would need rewinding, or fast forwarding past the recording you’d not yet had the chance to watch.

It was quite basic really but laborious, I don’t think anyone in my family ever worked out how to set the video timer to record automatically, we all had to remember to push play and record at 7.30pm to video Coronation Street for Mum while she was at Badminton.

Our parents didn’t use it to the gadgets we had to their full potential then, and I don’t now. Technology is moving on so fast that I have to admit I really do have trouble keeping up with it, and I am supposedly one of ‘the young.’  Well, probably only according to my parents.

Just the explosion of  all things modern; text, email on your phone, smart phones with all their possibilities, digital cameras, instagram, facebook, twitter and all the other social media, Face Time, IPad, itouch, ipod, Tivo, internet TV, cable, Kindles, Satellite Navigation and the endless new apps and computer software overwhelm and confound me.

The children, having grown up with it, are all so undaunted by it. They love it and are quick to appropriate the phone of any unsuspecting visitor who gives them permission to use theirs. Before I know it they are looking through all their photos on it, playing music and checking out what games they might have. Rachel has been known to purchase new games on it using their itunes account. She is only just 4 years old.

When I first had children I used to carry around toys in my bag; pretend keys, stacking cups, a small magnetic drawing board, that kind of thing. Now if you want to keep a child entertained whilst you are trying to have an adult conversation you give them your phone. Even if you don’t give over your phone, they want it, in the same way that babies would rather play with your real keys than be fobbed off with pretend ones. They just want to imitate you.

Smart phones on which they can play music and games, watch videos and even take photos, are so every day to kids, they are not the least bit impressed by them. I was looking through my iphone pictures and found photos of me asleep recently, evidence of Rachel being up early one morning and keeping herself amused taking pictures when we were camping out.

Emilia asked me recently whether the Sat Nav could tell us the way to heaven.

Some young kids are so used to face time or seeing a photo attached to a caller that if they look at a blank screen on a phone, they think there is no one there.

Our children used to be funny on the telephone, nothing would shut them up faster than putting a phone to their ear and requiring them to talk. It would make them go all quiet and shy and nod and shake their head when someone asked them a question.

“They can’t see you!” I would despair “you have to speak, just say yes or no!” 

It was painful.

We used to ‘Skype’ family occasionally, if my husband was there to set it all up, but we haven’t yet got a face time facility. It was quite novel to start with, Skype had the opposite effect of a regular phone and because the children could see themselves, they would turn into total show offs and used to spend the whole time pulling faces and making stupid noises at their cousins, or showing them lego they’d made.

We are currently borrowing a friend’s ipad in order to get Face Time as Mark is abroad for 2 weeks. It is useful to be able to have him wag his finger at the children and tell them to ‘get up and help Mummy,’ even though he is not physically here.

They are so blasé about the whole thing, it is not enough just to be able to see him, hear him and to be shown around where he is staying and working on the other side of the world, they have to throw punches at the screen camera and watch Dad recoil as if he has been hit. Actually, come to think of it, I think Mark started that one!

I am still incredulous that it is possible at all from just his phone, to see and hear him so clearly, and amazed that it can feel like we’re in the same room when he is so far away.

It is strange to think that as time moves on, that not having this facility to talk face to face, might seem as old fashioned as not having a mobile phone today.

Technology has advanced so much it is almost akin to magic. You can do so much with just the touch of a button or slide of your finger.

Ben and Mark love it and can program and do all sorts of animation and special effects through the computer. Ben’s latest film is just a clip of a few seconds where he rubs his fingers together producing crackling sparks, then creates a magical ball of green energy between his hands. He then claps his hands together and it disappears in a puff of smoke. It is simple but effective.

Rachel watched it fascinated, then wanted the live version.

“Do it now, Ben” she demanded.

“He can’t” I said, “it is not real, it is special effects.”

“Oh” she said, seeming to get it.

A little later she was sitting on my lap rubbing her fingers together trying to make sparks,

“But what did you put on Ben’s fingers?”

Growing up as they are, surrounded by the enormous capability of modern technology, it is easy to see that they believe anything is possible. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAracQC5qys&feature=youtu.be