‘It takes them half an hour to tie their shoelaces and only 12 seconds to troubleshoot the iPad.’
—Anonymous
I think my child라이브 바카라 first brush with technology happened when he was two years old. There was this app called Talking Tom which was quite a cool thing actually and very, very effective at keeping children calm and happy. It was a cat with a funny little voice and it imitated anything you said. Eshan was crazy about it, and I used it to calm and distract him in many a difficult situation. And I am certainly not alone. Haven’t we all seen that toddler on a flight or in a restaurant being tossed a smartphone just to keep him quiet so that the mum or dad can sit back and breathe for a few seconds? Now I do agree that it might have been more responsible parenting to at least try to calm a screaming child with some soothing music or a story instead, but somehow the smartphone just seemed to be the most effective option. Come on, you agree, don’t you? Admit it!
Let me mention right at the outset that I was never the kind of mum who was averse to technology. I mean, even schools have information and computer technology (ICT) classes and regularly use smartboards and iPads for young children these days. However, I was not the completely cool kind either. I guess I was somewhere in between. You know, the kind who would allow the use of a laptop or smartphone for a limited amount of time as long as I could effectively monitor what Eshan was doing with it, and prioritise things like outdoor activities, music and reading time.
Now while technology has been an integral part of our lives for many years, there is no disputing the fact that it did get elevated to a whole new status during the Covid pandemic. It would not be an exaggeration to say that our sanity, even our survival, depended on technology back then. Think about it! All those Zoom meetings and webinars and videoconferences. How could we have managed without them? Not to mention those online classes for the children. In fact, if anyone managed to seamlessly, painlessly, acclimatize to technology during the pandemic, it was our children. Even as I think about it now, one particular instance immediately comes to mind.
The lockdown was on and my nine-year-old son was in an online class. Suddenly, he came running up to me and said urgently, ‘My audio got glitched!’
‘How do you even know that word?’ I muttered as I ran to help him.
Frankly, I am not very hands-on with computer apps or anything to do with tech really. While I have been using laptops and smartphones for years, before I became a mother my rule as far as technology goes was to know things strictly on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. So much so that I think the six-month National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) course I signed up for in college was completely wasted on me. Anyway, as far as the audio was concerned, eventually Eshan figured it out on his own.
I have to admit I was mighty impressed when I saw his small fingers fly across the keyboard. He pressed something, then something else and voila! He had managed to fix the problem. Then there was the time when he even managed to help me fix something. I was working on an office presentation and was trying to save a Word file on the desktop. Pretty basic, right? The computer though did not think so and it kept displaying an error message. That is when Eshan walked in and nonchalantly said, ‘You’ve opened too many apps, Mum. Close them and then try and save it.’
I looked at him in amazement, then tried what he had suggested, and lo and behold! It worked! That was the day I fully realized just how tech-savvy this generation really is.
These children have been using laptops and iPads long before they even learnt to read. They are matter of fact, blasé and relaxed around technology. Of course, now with so much focus on online learning and digital classrooms and everything, plus a lot of our own work revolving around technology and many of us working from home, we parents don’t really have a choice but to embrace this double-edged sword. Truth be told, I have to admit that I was infinitely thankful to technology during the Covid-19 lockdown. Puneet and I were able to work effectively and my child was constructively engaged for five hours every day in online classes. Even his tae kwon do and abacus classes were happening digitally. Undoubtedly, it was what helped me keep my sanity and it was with a feeling of deep gratitude that I sat down to grasp the technicalities of platforms like MS Teams and Zoom.
Admittedly, when Eshan worked out that technical glitch for my presentation, the thought did cross my mind that when it comes to technology, my child might be the one helping me, not the other way round. And I am certainly not alone. A recent survey found out that a significant percentage of parents actually learn the use of several electronic devices and apps from their children. The survey further revealed that in more ways than we can even hope to count, our children are far ahead of us in all matters related to technology. The point is, are we okay with that? Do we want to be the people who turn a blind eye to what our kids are doing on those laptops simply because we can’t figure it out?
(Excerpted with permission from Sleep, Support and Sanity: A Survivor's Guide to Early Motherhood by Rrashima Swaarup Verma, Om Books International.)
