When I write "We" in the title, I don't really mean for all the readers of this blog, but more to people to my age. And I do not mean old as in the number that starts ticking the year that we were born, but the way we think, the ideas that we have in mind and our opinions on the newer generations.
A while back, I read a facebook status of a friend of mine. A young mom, with a kid probably around 1-2year old. She was writing about how she religously believed that parents exposing their kids to young age (2-3yo) is such a bad thing. Of course in that same post she was saying how an examplary mom she was in raising her kids. Probably you guys with no kids like me have seen a few statement of these young parents indirectly inflating themselves claiming they're like the best mom/dad of the world and sharing about how good they are raising their kid(s). Don't wanna go too deep into that cos I'll probably do the same thing if I ever had any kids one day. That being said, at that time I kinda agreed with her, kids nowadays are getting too too much exposure of these things.
But then I was in an MRT(the train here) last week, taking a ride back from home. While I was standing in there I saw a child in his stroller. The kid was playing some kind of puzzle game, I don't know what game was that, but he looked like he was enjoying himself, and he seemed to be doing quite good at it. I was impressed, not just by the fact that he knows how to operate that thing, but also that he was solving puzzles with that game. Again, the kid was only like 2 or 3 year old. That kinda got me thinking that this kind of exposure was not too bad at all. I think it does generate a certain kind of interaction albeit not with human. Nevertheless, it still helps with the kids mind growing with many kinds of puzzles and problem solving applications.
When I was a kid, I played a lot of video games, and people of my parents generations also religiously believed that playing video games are bad for us kids. But I for one did not think so, and I know many would agree with me. Video games gave me a lot exposure to English language. You think I would pick up English by reading grammar books and the boring lame textbooks? hell no. And then there were (and still exist) computers and internet. Did you remember how during that day spending an hour in the internet would warrant a lecture from your parents? Nowadays it is so common we are carrying a gadget if not two with internet access. Our life will be incomplete and paralyzed if we don't have internet access in a day. Even some of our parents now have a facebook account and probably been posting more stuff than us nowadays. Probably even have more social networks accounts than we do. How time has changed yeah?
When I was in my video gaming days my dad would tell me all sort of stuff he used to do when he was a kid and those are the things that I have missed and did not get the chance to do. I still had the opportunities to play some of the traditional games, but apparently according to him that was like the milder and unoriginal version of them, and the golden age of traditional games were during his days. Okay dad... And now I see people of my generation whining about how the kids nowadays never play any traditional games and resented it. What I am trying to say is that if our ancestors thousand years before Us used to run for days to stalk and hunt cheetah for sport when they were teenagers, do you expect your kids to do the same thing?
The World and technologies are moving so fast nowadays,I think that there is a part of Our brain, our subconscious mind is actually being defensive about these changes. Fear or scared would be too strong of a word, but I am trying to be a bit vanilla by saying defensive. We keep telling ourselves that the good old way is the best. Hey, we turned out just fine anyway right? No reason why it wouldn't work out the same with our kids. I think that by doing so, we are actually teaching our future generation of the World that was, and making them ignorant about the World that is, and the World that will be. We are imposing an old system and Ideas that have worked on Us, but not necessarily going to work on them.
Why would We wanna severe their exposure and access to the progress of this world? Shouldn't our task be preparing and nurturing them so that they will be up to date to this harsh and ever evolving world? I am not suggesting leaving the kids with unlimited and unmonitored usage of those technologies, but I do think severing the connection wholly is unwise. Again, I am being vanilla by using the word unwise. I have another stronger words in mind. The key is in moderation. Everything has to be in moderation, even moderation itself.
Ignorant. That will be another thing that I think we develop as we grow. We develop the attitude that We have been through enough and We know enough crap that the opinions of people younger than us means shit. This is Us in our mid to late 20s. Wait till we get to 50s, we are gonna think people should bow and obey to our every word just because we're old. By that time, We are going to consider the voice of younger generations are just like insects buzz and we will spank their asses for their opinions because they dare to talk back to us. What a great culture and society We are living in.
Probably by this time, people with kids are already cursing me by writing this, saying that I know nothing because I don't have kids yet. But hey, they are right. I don't have kids yet, that's why I write this opinion of mine. Probably one day when I had one, my opinions would change, I would see things in their perspective. But that would actually just proved my points here. That day, when I started thinking like an old, outdated man, living in an old World inside my own head. By that time, you will see my Facebook status championing myself as the best dad in the World, uncontested and disregarding billions other Dads in the World. If it comes to that, please forgive me in advance.
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