My digital natives don't get money. I mean they see coins or paper currency and identify it as money, but they don't understand how it interacts with people or functions in ther world. They see a plastic debit card make the purchases in their lives. There are very few opportunities when my kids witness me pay cash for anything. My older child is learning about coin and bill values in school and knows that she can collect money in her piggy bank. However, last week I was jolted into the reality that she totally doesn't understand where money comes from or how and why we use it.
Here was our eye-opening conversation:
Child: "Can we go out to dinner? I want La Toltecas."
Me: "Mommy hasn't budgeted the money to go out for dinner tonight, we are eating at home."
Child: (Pouts with a huge huff) "Why don't you just go to the box and get more?"
Me: "What box, honey?"
Child: "Mom! The big box you drive by at the bank...you know..."
She was talking about the ATM machine. I tried to explain that "the box" only gives you the money you have earned, it is not an infinite supply. No response. We only get a certain amount of money each month. No response. Our bosses put that money at the bank for us when we do our jobs. Then a strange quiet query from the backseat "How do you know?" Now the adult is stunned into silence..."Um, well..."
See, I don't know, not in the sense that I knew when I was a kid growing up. When I was growing up my parents each got a check every two weeks and we took those to a bank, where we stood in line and Mom talked to a bank teller, the bank teller counted out the money Mom requested, and Mom got cash in a cool little enevelope and we got suckers. I saw the money. I watched my parents pay for groceries with cash, for gas with cash, for clothes at the mall with cash. Now, I didn't grow up that long ago, so by the time I was in high school many things had switched over to debit cards, but my parents still don't go out to dinner unless they are paying cash.
So when my own kid asked me how do I know, it stopped me for a minute. I utilize several tools of the 21st century; direct deposit, ATMs (obviously), online banking and I recognize how these work in theory. But do I actually "know" the money is there in the bank? According to my computer, yes. According to my upbringing in a cash & carry world, well...no. This gave me insight into why she doesn't understand how we budget - often digitally - yet. My child is deveoplmentally tangible, and I am asking her to learn tangible monetary systems in school and live in a totally untangible financial world. I get why she doesn't get it.
How do we close the very real gap for our digital natives? Do we try to use more cash so that we value where they are and what they are learning in school? Do we ask schools to take a critical look at how they teach money and whether or not it is preparing students to use money in a global economy that is no longer based on a tangible currency model? I think we have to do both. Our digital natives are often living between two worlds where money is concerned. I believe that it is our job to build the bridge for them to ensure that they have the solid understandings of tangible currency and digital finance necessary to be successful and solvent citizens in the 21st century.
This post is a week late...we were on vacation...more time to hang out with my own digital natives and watch them use the technology at hand to capture their experiences. What I observed was eye-opening and at the same time a confirmation of something I have witnessed in classrooms over the last fifteen years; visuals are becoming a verb.
When I think of visuals, I see images capturing a moment in time. Something that helps me remember the images in my mind's eye - like a picture of our dog as a puppy - I know how far away we had to drive to get him and that my sister and I wore sandals because I remember the feel of dirt he kicked on our toes when the picture was being taken. Sometimes the visual recreates a story that I never lived but have heard time and time again - a picture of my grandparents on their wedding day - I know the dress was deep blue even though the photo is black and white because my grandmother speaks of (and her mother spoke of) it so vividly. These are triggers that drive my thoughts through the maze of memories my brain holds and I use them daily, actively, to remind myself of the ideas I hold from the past, savor in the present, and envision for the future.
I have often wondered in recent years if digital natives see images differently. These kids seem to be so tied to visual input and they are bombarded with it daily at a level unimaginable even twenty years ago (When my parents were postive that my brain was rotting out of my head over the summer from watching MTV at friends' houses). My own children, children of colleagues, and our students will watch and rate commercials, scan YouTube videos for the "best one" of something as simple as a cartoon opening sequence, watch countless hours of shows and movies looking for the best visual effects, and vehemently reject ideas, experiences, and instruction because it doesn't immediately engage them visually. Does this mean they are not paying as much attention as digital immigrants? Are digital natives as a group addicted to images to a point that may stop them from becoming productive citizens? Well, no, I don't think so.
What I have observed is that digital natives use visuals not as memory triggers, but capture groups of visuals as part of the memory itself. They are so used to visuals that images are an integral part of every story or event, not just those special enough to be saved. This is, at least in part, because capturing visual images has become so easy and common place. Even the youngest digital immigrants grew up in an era where many families had one maybe two cameras and possibly a videocamera, and all images were captured using film. Film was moderately expensive and more expensive to process, plus until it was processed you had no idea about the quality of images you had recorded. Often images were not seen until days or weeks after the recorded event. Digital natives have easy and affordable access to technology that records images instantly, no processing required for playback. They take and retake visuals to recreate their feelings about the experience. Part of their memorable experiences IS the capturing of visuals and viewing them while they are still at that special place or event. Summer vacation has morphed from "I went to the Grand Canyon!" to "Look at the video I shot at the Grand Canyon and threw on my YouTube channel this afternoon!"
This two part transformation of our world - easy & accessible visual recording technology and visual image input being at an all time high - has led to digital natives embracing the process of imaging as part of who they are as learners and citizens. Even as young as my preschooler, they want to control the images they capture...capturing visuals has become both a form of learning and entertainment and sharing images for feedback is part of this process. My digital natives and I look at and use visuals differently, but as I watch my kids I understand why they are so drawn to recording and replaying the visuals they do capture...a picture - whether drawn on a cave wall, faded in a guilded frame, or seen in an iPhone slideshow - still paints a thousand words.
How do we close the very real gap for our digital natives? Do we try to use more cash so that we value where they are and what they are learning in school? Do we ask schools to take a critical look at how they teach money and whether or not it is preparing students to use money in a global economy that is no longer based on a tangible currency model? I think we have to do both. Our digital natives are often living between two worlds where money is concerned. I believe that it is our job to build the bridge for them to ensure that they have the solid understandings of tangible currency and digital finance necessary to be successful and solvent citizens in the 21st century.
