I hate it when people say technology is taking away kids’ childhoods
If anything, it’s actually giving kids more of an opportunity to let their imagination out
A lot of times when I let kids play on my phone, they go for the drawing app.
I watched a girl on the bus write a silly poem about her friends and then laugh as she made Siri read it
I hear children say to their friends “hey, FaceTime me later” because they still want to talk face to face even when they’re far away.
I see kids sitting, who would feel lonely and ignored if it weren’t for the fact that they’re texting their friends who are far away.
Children still climb trees. They might just take a selfie from the top to show off how high they’ve gotten.
They can immediately read the next book of their favorite series on their Kindles.
Most kids would still be up for a game of cops and robbers. Or maybe they’d google rules to another game they haven’t played yet.
When children wonder why the sky is blue, they don’t get an exasperated “I don’t know” from tired adults. They can go on Wikipedia and read about light waves and our atmosphere.
They show off the elaborate buildings they created on Minecraft.
Love this post so much to counteract much of the pessimism surrounding technology and kids. It’s not stealing kids’ innocence, just another means of expressing it. And so often do I hear that all kids do these days is “play on their phones” instead of doing other things, it’s starting to sound like a broken record. >.>
Heck, it reminds me of the first time our family got a computer; sure, I was on it all the time, but it afforded me a chance to talk more often with my best friend at the time. It filled in that boredom that would have otherwise been filled with TV and made me curious about the world.
Whenever an adult starts complaining about technology taking away kids’ childhoods they should stop and consider what they’re doing, as an adult, to keep those childhoods safe. Or if they’re maybe not actually obstructing their kids in the pursuit of their needs.
‘Get off the computer’ and ‘turn off your phone’ but no real understanding of what the kids are getting from technology that their adults fail to provide for them.
Like, privacy from monitoring by their parents. Like interaction with their peers. Like a limitless world where they can make their own space without being fenced in, chastised, restricted, criticised. Like finding new knowledge. Like fun. Like creativity.
It’s an adult guardian’s responsibility to try to understand that world instead of blaming it for being more welcoming to their kid than they are.
i picked up a new class of year sevens today and i was writing on the board (in very illegible overly loopy cursive) and one girl was like “miss rose, i think you’re a very similar person to your handwriting” and i was like “why do you think that sweetheart?” and she was like “it’s very pretty but a lot of it is just unnecessary”
and can i just say i don’t think i’ve ever been dragged that hard in my life let alone by an eleven year old
Bishop Curry V may be young (10 years old, to be precise), but the little kid from Texas has some big ideas. He’s currently working on a device that could help prevent children from dying in hot cars.
The number of children who died in hot cars increased across the country last year, and Texas had the highest number of cases. Sadly for Bishop, the issue also hits close to home because a baby died in a minivan last summer outside a home near his own family’s home in McKinney.
Bishop was inspired to create a device he calls “Oasis,” which would attach to a car seat and detect if a child is left inside the vehicle, prompting it to blow cool air until parents or the police are notified.
“It would be a dream to have lots of inventions that would save many lives,” the precocious 10-year-old told the news station.
A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to leave something in a hot car.
It’s easy to forget something when it’s not in your daily routine, especially if it’s asleep or under a blanket or something.
This is a nightmare. I don’t have kids myself, but I can absolutely understand how this could happen- everyone’s sick so you’re probably kind of out of it, you run in thinking you’re just going to be a minute, get distracted with the task at hand… and then your child dies in a horrific way because of it…
I’m all for any methods or technologies that can help prevent it from turning tragic.
#BlackPride #BlackInventors
THIS IS LITERALLY THE BEST WAY TO WAKE UP holy shit I am so proud of this child I wanna give them a huge hug
Just introduced a kid to her adoptive parents. They brought her a dozen roses. We met at a restaurant. I arrived early to get a private booth and told the waitstaff what was up. So all the servers were having a cry in the corner. I’m at a coffee shop a few miles away, giving them space and having my own cry.
Adoptive mom clarified to me later: roses were pink because pink means forever.
What’s more important than the roses, though, is they also brought her a luggage set so she wouldn’t be moving her things in garbage bags. The luggage matches theirs, cause it’s family luggage for family trips.
Couples receive “parent points”, which they can use to purchase their children. Most parents wait for a few thousand, but you chose to buy the cheaper, 100 point child.
Shane knows what it’s like to be a 100 point child. He knows how it feels to see potential parents–potential families–come through the facilities doors, faces bright with excitement. He knows how it feels to see them reading the little plaques on the nursery doors, scanning the lists there for the right bits of knowledge and etiquette and grace that they want their baby to have.
He knows how it feels to see their faces pinch outside the window before they hurry to the next room.
Shane grew up in a 100 point nursery. They had torn, ratty, books and no teachers, and when snack time came, the tray was pushed through a slat in the door. They were called “unruly” and “damaged” and “stupid.” A lot of the other kids threw tantrums and broke furniture (and sometimes other kids). A lot of the other kids went quiet after the first few years when they realized they’d never be adopted until they were old enough (or pretty enough) to be useful. A lot of the kids cried and didn’t stop until they got taken away or were aged out.
Shane’s grown up a lot since aging out. He put himself through school, got himself a job, shed his 100 points like the torn clothes he’d left the facility in. He’s powerful now, successful, and he’s grown out of the twisted nose, big ears, and gap-toothed smile that had made him one of the less attractive 100 point babies. Or maybe he’s grown into them. Who’s to say?
It’s taken him a long time to get enough Parent Points to do what he wants. Being a man is, for once, somewhat hindering as most of society equates “parental” with “maternal.” He’s lost count of how many social workers have politely hid expressions of surprise when he told them he wanted to adopt stag, that he’s willing to take the classes, get the grades, make the oaths to get even one Parent Point.
Pete and Jane Carson were poor, so poor, and lived so far out away from town that they had trouble managing to earn many Parent Points. The points were awarded very strictly, and since their truck was…third-hand at least, well, they didn’t always make it everywhere exactly on time.
But they were so in love, and so enthusiastic about it, that as soon as they managed to reach that magical hundredth point, they practically ran to the Ward Building.
The lady took down their information and showed them all the brochures and read them all the disclaimers with a distinct air of disdain. It was obvious she thought no one had any business taking in any child worth less than a thousand points. Still, there was nothing to stop them from doing it–at least, nothing she could legally get away with–so she showed them to the hundred-point children.
It was agony making a choice. There were so many children there, and they were all so obviously in need of help. But one boy, the oldest and he was probably about seven, pointed them to a tiny child who’d been very sick lately and explained that the heat in the room didn’t work very well, and so when the little ones got sick, their tiny bodies sometimes couldn’t work hard enough to keep them warm and get them better. There was a look in his eyes that said sometimes there had been sick children who’d been eventually taken away and hadn’t been brought back.
So they took the sick child, whose name was Jakob, and gave him a home in their big, rickety farmhouse so far away from town, but they agreed. “That’s our next child.”
It was so much harder for single people to gain Parent Points. Lisbeth had sat in the same room as dozens of happy couples; had taken the same tests and had received the same courses, and yet had earned less than half the points that they did. Every time she first introduced herself to an instructor, they asked when her significant other would be coming, and wrinkled their nose at her when she made it clear to them that she was alone. It seemed like every time the topic of Parent Points were brought up, someone was telling her to wait. Wait until she found a husband or wife, wait until she was older and wiser.
Steel Phoenix Studios 