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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Too Easy Tech?

My associate vet told me about a rather strange situation that happened to her.  When her husband looked at their cell phone bill, apparently there was $80 in songs downloaded to her phone.  She had no idea how this had happened, as she didn't do it herself.  After some investigating they realized that their 16 month-old daughter had done it!  Apparently if you hit the "Select" button on her phone three times in a row, you've gone through the proper menus to order a song.  So their little girl was playing with the phone and by simply pressing buttons had ordered dozens of songs!  Her mother didn't even know how to do it!

My kids are older, 6 (almost 7) and 8, and they have been able to use the camera on our cell phones for a few years now.  It took them no time at all to figure it out, and we had to disallow them from playing with the phones because my wife and I would sometimes find odd pictures or videos on our phone.  These kinds of things come naturally to this generation, and it almost seems like they were born with a BlackBerry in their hands. 

This is a generational thing, and completely natural.  I know that I have always been far more tech-savvy than my parents.  I remember when my parents got a new RV and my father was trying to figure out how to set the clock on the microwave.  By the time he looked and found the instructions in the manual, I had simply looked at it, figured it out, and set the proper time.  With the speed of technological development nowadays it can be hard for adults to keep up.  But the kids grow up around this and find it easy and expected.  My kids have never known a time when cell phones, laptops, satellite TV, and video games didn't exist. 

Thankfully I'm a bit of a geek and technophile, and I can still surpass my kids.  However, I'm waiting for the day when I get a new holographic projector and while I'm perusing the instructions my son just walks up and gets it running.