When it comes to technology, I consider myself quite tuned-in. I read my daily TechCrunch, Valleywag, Boing Boing and Engadget. I’m an early adopter of most online services and I get really really excited about stupid geeky things like A.I. apps, open-source CMS offerings and start-up camps. But in my old age, I’m starting to realize that I’m pretty damn behind.
An evening hanging out with my 24 year-old brother reveals that I’m a gaming dumbass (I mean, is it really necessary to have 20+ buttons on a PS3 controller?!), that I pay way too much money for digital music, and that primetime TV is oh so yesterday (with vlogs, Netflix, Hulu and YouTube, apparently there is no need for a TV). And even though all of this makes me feel like a dinosaur in the tech universe, I figure my brother’s ability to do 400 things online at once and his ability to find bespoke mixes by DJ Tiesto for free can be attributed to the fact that I think he’s got some form of ADD. The kid is just plain strange (i.e. he collected collections as a child, and once, he nearly died under a snow pile trying to make an igloo from the inside out). Compared to normal people, I’m not so behind.
But then enters Avni. Avni is the most delicious thing on offer this side of the northern hemisphere. Her cheeks are a perfect blob of puffy pink goodness. Her eyes are so big she can pass as an anime cartoon. And she is so smart it takes three adult university graduate homo sapiens to keep her from establishing a dictatorship in the household. She can latin dance with the best of ‘em, creates beautiful table art with creative ingredients like yogurt, raisins and milk and she sings, improv style! And as if all of this weren’t enough to whizz her past all rounds of college admissions, she is well-versed on the iPhone, YouTube and digital video capture. She is two years old.
While over at Avniland last night for dinner, I couldn’t contain my shock as she thumbed through her favourite nursery rhyme, walked me through her favourite videos and practiced her vocabulary with flashcards of things like asparagus, helicopter and goat (I don’t think I learned how to say asparagus until I was 20). All on the iPhone. I don’t even own an iPhone!
When a two-year-old looks at a laptop screen and touches it to see if she can turn the page, you know instantly that her world is a completely different universe from ours. When she wants music, instead of an instrument, she turns to YouTube. When you take a picture, she knows instantly to walk over and view herself on the camera’s LCD screen. And she knows, from a pile of many, which file on the iPhone is her favourite dancing video. She is two years old! TWO! Next thing you know she’ll be tweeting her favourite toddler app marketplace via her iPad. This is like a scene from a futuristic movie that didn’t get off the ground because it’s already so dated.
How do you even keep up with a kid like this?! As a parent, not only do you have to hone your negotiation skills (because raising a two year old, I’ve discovered, is like being in the longest deal negotiations meeting of all time), your parental instincts, your patience, your perseverance, manage your energy, and practice prioritization, you now must also be a tech guru! You must be well-informed, prepared and aware of how technology will impact your darling little baby. And lucky for my friends (Avni’s parents), they’re both in tech. What about parents who aren’t interested or tech savvy as it is? How do you raise a child three steps ahead of you in this space? It’s like an illiterate parent teaching their child to read. Is that even possible?
Though I know a lot of it has to do with exposure and the home environment, the idea of a two year-old navigating an iPhone isn’t such a radical concept these days. But as someone in their twenties, not yet a mama, and a suffering technophilia, I tell you, actually seeing this happen in person is still a sight to behold.
This world is changing and it’s changing faster than ever. One year ago nobody checked into Cafe del Dogge on foursquare, the Kindle was for early adopters and YouTube live streaming was the new hot thing. Six months from now Twitter will be an old fad, Facebook will have taken over the world, and heck, Avni might even be president!
