Digital Generation

I attended the 'Staff Development Hour' at the office today and one of my colleagues spoke of his experience when he attended a conference on Mobile Libraries.
Among other things that I found interesting was an amusing computer picture of a foetus holding a mobile phone to its barely developed head. This is some computer genius’ manipulation of images to show that the world is coming to a stage where even the foetus in the womb would become digital savvy. He then showed us the picture of his 3 year old son fully concentrated on the Ipad.

I then thought of my 7+ year old son who had in the past few months turned into a Researcher . He is seriously studying the planets and the solar system and when you notice the house has suddenly turned quiet all you need do is go to where the laptop is and you’ll find him fully engrossed in it.

He came to my room 3 days ago while I was so busy trying to send some images from my phone into my email unsuccessfully. I sort of blanked him out and then I heard ‘Mum, are you really interested?’. That was the magic word with me because I know I should listen to him when he is talking to me. I apologetically asked him to repeat what he said and he launched into a tirade of planet talk. He even asked me to check out the website he had found. He discussed the possibilities of other beings in other solar systems and told me these might be the aliens people sometimes see. He informed me of the different types of moons surrounding each planet and I heard for the first time from him that Neptune is covered in water!

I was amazed at the depth of knowledge he had discovered by himself through the internet and at the zeal with which he was discussing his findings. I momentarily became scared not for his use of the internet (because the laptop has a parental control anyway) but at the rate at which things are moving. If a 7+ year old could dig up so much information what would happen when he’s 30 years old or where would the world be in the next 100+ years? It beats me.