A Kid’s Perspective on Digital Use & Society

• by jakeaull

My kid recently expressed observations and pet peeves regarding tech devices and how “adults” talk about them. Some real gems came out of this conversation:
•    “I can’t stand it when people say ‘open your computer.’ I don’t have a computer – I have a chrome book. All the kids in my class have chrome books. It’s obviously a chrome book.”
•    “It bugs me when my grandmother says ’telephone.’ No one says telephone! There’s no such thing! There are iPhones, Androids – some people even have flip phones. But no one says ‘telephone.’” (These remarks remind me of the saying that the Eskimos have 50 words for ‘snow.’ In a culture where something is omnipresent, distinctions and versions matter greatly to those who are effected by it.)
•    “My grandmother prefers me to play solitaire with old-fashioned cards instead of on her computer. Why? On her computer it’s much easier and faster.” (True – the digital upgrade to playing cards has certainly boosted the speed of the old analog versions in your hands).
•    “Someday shared music will play directly throughout your whole car, with 3D hologram hearts and emoji floating around you within the car as well.”
•    “And you won’t need your phone in the car – your car will take the place of your phone and do all those functions. So will other electronics.”

•    “You need to use good hashtags. #Hashtags should be short, awesome and a little dumb. Like #ProSkills. And #Awesomeness.”

•    “What’s a TV set?” (then, upon hearing the answer), “It’s just a TV. No reason to use the word ‘set.'”

•    “In the future the library won’t be a place. It will just be an app. Why do you need a place? Just use the app and download everything you need to read, listen to and watch.”

What interested me personally was that many of these sayings were prefaced with “In the future, this will be…” instead of mere opinions or hopes. But of course many of these are realizable – many libraries do have apps. From the mouths of babes, right? Or is that too “old fashioned” of an expression for me to say?

– Jake Aull, Zen Fires Digital Marketing