Technology is definitely one of the fastest developing market. It keeps on changing and introducing new solutions, products and services that are supposed to make our life easier. Can you imagine a life without your laptop or smartphone or tablet? Well, perhaps some of us can but the younger generation, not so much.
Nowadays, children grow up in the IT-experienced world. They follow the news and keep up with updates. They are incredibly aware of the available devices. Give your smartphone to a 6-year old, for instance. You'd expect the kid to be confused and try to touch the screen randomly but no. Children know exactly how mobiles work, even more, they know exactly how to use the settings that some of he adults are unaware of having. Now, imagne giving your smartphone to a 50-year old, who's never owned one - they'll be confused.
It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. On one hand, this phenomenon is rather relieving because this innate awareness and ability to handle various devices keeps them up-to-date with the IT news and innovations. That also means they won't need to spend time on learning how to use the tools, unlike the older generation. On the other, however, it's scary. The level of technology's involvement in children's life is incredibly high and that can make one wonder - isn't it too high?
Kids cannot imagine a life without tablets, laptops or smartphones. It's understandable considering they were born and they're growing up in the constat presence of these devices. But again, they can't imagine not having them on hand. No reception or no Internet connection seems to to be the end of the world. Not being in touch with others? Not spending hours on using social media? Tht's unberable for them. Now, doesn't it look like we're heading into the direction of inate addiction among your generation? And is it going to gt to even younger kids?
There's nothing wrong in using the available devices that easen our lives but we need to keep in mind that a child's brain is much more vulnerable and prone to absorb information. That means we need to be extremly careful with the amount of access to the innovations we give children. Their brain is like a sponge so it can easily take too much and lead to addiction.
Another thing is the speed that innovations take. Not so long ago a cell phone looked like a brick and only the richest and mosed influential people owned one. Just a few years later we were introduced to the first samll mobile phones with one-coloured screen. No one really wanted the orange one, green was the best and if you had a flip phone you were 'the man'. But that'snot all. It wasn't that long ago when the Internet was coming to the picture. If you were lucky enough wand owned one of the massive PCs you could connect via your landline but obviously first you'd all your grandma to inform her that the phone would be unreachable for the next hour or so as you'll be on-line.
All of this looks like centuries ago and it actually hasn't been that long. For cell phones just 30 years. But it's not just that. Throughout the past couple of dacades we've changed the way of saving data at least three times. Does anyone remember floppy disks anymore? Maybe but do children know what these were? Nope. Nowadays even a CD looks old school. With Blue-ray's high-definition technology DVDs stand ahead of a difficult fight. We still seem to be quite fond of the flash discs but ith the cloud solutions becoming more developed and popularized it's doubtful how long our devotion to those is going to hold.
Technology develops in an incredible pace, children seem to be fine with it but is it really ok for us to be lavished with updates every couple of months? Bbut most importantly, how long can it keep on accelerating? Is it eventually going to crush a wall or maybe, just as any other market, reach the peek and stand still?
Nowadays, children grow up in the IT-experienced world. They follow the news and keep up with updates. They are incredibly aware of the available devices. Give your smartphone to a 6-year old, for instance. You'd expect the kid to be confused and try to touch the screen randomly but no. Children know exactly how mobiles work, even more, they know exactly how to use the settings that some of he adults are unaware of having. Now, imagne giving your smartphone to a 50-year old, who's never owned one - they'll be confused.
It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. On one hand, this phenomenon is rather relieving because this innate awareness and ability to handle various devices keeps them up-to-date with the IT news and innovations. That also means they won't need to spend time on learning how to use the tools, unlike the older generation. On the other, however, it's scary. The level of technology's involvement in children's life is incredibly high and that can make one wonder - isn't it too high?
Kids cannot imagine a life without tablets, laptops or smartphones. It's understandable considering they were born and they're growing up in the constat presence of these devices. But again, they can't imagine not having them on hand. No reception or no Internet connection seems to to be the end of the world. Not being in touch with others? Not spending hours on using social media? Tht's unberable for them. Now, doesn't it look like we're heading into the direction of inate addiction among your generation? And is it going to gt to even younger kids?
There's nothing wrong in using the available devices that easen our lives but we need to keep in mind that a child's brain is much more vulnerable and prone to absorb information. That means we need to be extremly careful with the amount of access to the innovations we give children. Their brain is like a sponge so it can easily take too much and lead to addiction.
Another thing is the speed that innovations take. Not so long ago a cell phone looked like a brick and only the richest and mosed influential people owned one. Just a few years later we were introduced to the first samll mobile phones with one-coloured screen. No one really wanted the orange one, green was the best and if you had a flip phone you were 'the man'. But that'snot all. It wasn't that long ago when the Internet was coming to the picture. If you were lucky enough wand owned one of the massive PCs you could connect via your landline but obviously first you'd all your grandma to inform her that the phone would be unreachable for the next hour or so as you'll be on-line.
All of this looks like centuries ago and it actually hasn't been that long. For cell phones just 30 years. But it's not just that. Throughout the past couple of dacades we've changed the way of saving data at least three times. Does anyone remember floppy disks anymore? Maybe but do children know what these were? Nope. Nowadays even a CD looks old school. With Blue-ray's high-definition technology DVDs stand ahead of a difficult fight. We still seem to be quite fond of the flash discs but ith the cloud solutions becoming more developed and popularized it's doubtful how long our devotion to those is going to hold.
Technology develops in an incredible pace, children seem to be fine with it but is it really ok for us to be lavished with updates every couple of months? Bbut most importantly, how long can it keep on accelerating? Is it eventually going to crush a wall or maybe, just as any other market, reach the peek and stand still?