This week I really mulled over what I saw with my sweet, little digital natives last Friday and what to post, which is why it has taken so long to get this post up. (That, plus I have learned that blogging while two children are running around your computer is hard!) I spent some time reflecting on if the day was different because of technology. I kept coming back to one word, moderation. Don't get me wrong - I knew that I wanted to post about how digital natives moderate or self-regulate their technology use; it just took me a little longer to reflect, then reflect some more about what I was truly witnessing with my own kids.
I am a digital immigrant, my technology as a kid was moderated by definition; television stations went off air, tapes and records had to be flipped over, video games ended either because you won or your time was up, phones had cords and busy signals, and computers were in a lab that you got to venture into one day a week at school. There was not the opportunity in my home or our city to be using technology independently as a young child. Access to every technology was controlled by a grown-up or outside media supplier.
My children, digital natives, do not share this reality. There is programming on a children's channel at 2 am should they be allowed to view it, radio stations play 24 hours a day, and we have 6-7 hours of music even in the car without a repeat due to our trusty CD changer - not to mention hours more on an ipod that they can select by song, organize, play, replay, or delete with the swipe of a finger. Phones go everywhere and act as our camera, calendar, gameboard, internet access point, alarm clock, and communication command center. And computers? My kids rarely walk into an environment without computers, they are so common place my kids are more interested or awed by places that don't have computers - always referred to as "olden times places" by my older child.
So we spent our first Friday doing the activities of summer - morning at a local history camp, lunch with friends, read alouds with Momma, long naps, chocolate milk (a delicacy to small children!), watching a thunderstorm roll across our neighborhood, and staying up late. I let the kids have pretty free reign with the ipod, ipad, computer, and phone. I felt like the only times my kids disagreed or got cranky was when they couldn't control their own environment (developmentally appropriate for their ages) or technology use. We practice what we are taught, and I was beginning to worry about my need and/or ability to control technology for my kids. My first response was to take all the technology away (digital immigrant ways die hard), but I stuck to my guns and let them use technology when they wanted - secretly thinking naptime and bedtime were going to be a nightmare of techno-induced stupor and blue-screen fever. However, as the afternoon waned, so did the need for technology. My kids put the ipad down and joined me willingly for an extra long read aloud. My oldest took pictures of friends who are leaving for 2 years overseas and then asked me to put the phone and its camera away for safe keeping. There were more requests for card games, cooking together, and building sofa forts. The technology did come back out Friday evening, but got repurposed quickly - by the kids - for an impromptu all family dance-a-thon in the kitchen.
I do worry about digital natives needing technology to the point of shutting out human contact, but my kids surprised me in their ability to self-regulate or moderate their own use even as very young learners. With a few simple guidelines (no tech at the meal table, during read alouds, or when friends are over to see you) they are reassuring me that human contact will survive, I will not have to detox them from technology on a regular basis, and they still will need and want loving people around them give guidance, hugs, bandaids, and tell tales of "olden times places." My digital natives are helping me change my view of how moderation is learned or relearned in a digital world.
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