The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth

The other day I was browsing the delights of a clothes shop when a tiny toddler bumped into my leg. She couldn’t have been more than three, cute as a button, and totally detached from everything, completely engrossed in her cell phone. Well, Daddy’s cell phone actually! I watched with fascination as her little fingers swept confidently across the touch screen, eagerly searching for something which was obviously evading her!

“She doesn’t have any coverage,” joked Dad. Well, at least I hoped he was joking! Surely she wasn’t trying to surf the net, download a Netflix movie, or engage in a spot of retail therapy! I assumed she simply wanted to play a game as phones and tablets are often employed these days by parents to keep their children occupied and quietly controlled. Gone are the days when Mum had to load the pushchair with building blocks, toys, dolls, colouring books, crayons, cars and plastic unicorns. Popping out with a toddler was like ‘Toys R Us’ embarking on a global tour!

These days, all a parent really needs for some peace and quiet is a phone or a tablet. Boom! The only thing children seem to demand is a screen filled with movement and colour, offering a digital reaction each time their little fingers hit an icon. Their understanding of mobile devices is incredible considering their juvenile years. I was recently enthralled by a young parent who gave her child a magazine to play with while she occupied herself with an ‘Instagram’ session. The toddler was visibly frustrated as she swiped the front cover of Vogue with her fingers, and nothing happened. She went through the ‘enlarging’ motion with thumb and forefinger with no reaction from the magazine whatsoever. She pressed the colourful image yet the iconic model on the front cover remained static. Bored with this useless device, the child hurled Mum’s magazine across the café, not something you ever see happening with a smart-phone or tablet!

Thought provoking to note that this young child, although unable to handle the complexities of a simple magazine, could probably book a flight on-line to anywhere in the world using her mother’s i-phone! Just saying!!!

In startling reality, kids know a great deal more about technology than many of their adult counterparts, living secret lives on-line, with their own language codes designed to distract ‘monitoring’ adults.

But don’t get me wrong! Many great positives are attached to the technology prevalent in our everyday lives. We have phones which prompt us, inform us, set diaries, offer directions, wake us, handle on-line banking, play music, present literature, take and store photos etc. etc. It’s all brilliant!
Give a young child a cartoon to watch on a tablet, and toddler will be quiet for hours, which is a lot more than any game of i-spy could achieve on a lengthy car journey!

These days you can streamline films to watch 24/7 without even leaving the house, although there was something quite exciting about trekking down to the local cinema, especially on a Friday night. You got all ‘dolled’ up and hit the town for a ‘double feature’. You could also sit in the back row, canoodling with a ‘date’ for hours. Sadly, that old cinema magic is lost. These days, everyone in the family is usually in a different room watching a totally different download, including your partner.
I unequivocally embrace modern technology, yet sometimes worry at the speed of change. It’s an exciting prospect to live in a world where anything is possible as long as you press the right buttons. Yet heaven help us when it all goes wrong!

I recently moved house, which meant setting up a previously solid and reliable home ‘tech’ system, which I didn’t quite realise I totally relied on with everything compatible and connected! It should have been a relatively simple transition? It wasn’t! Although I’m sure it will all work out eventually, and everything will be restored to how it was before. Maybe I simply need a young child of around seven who understands these things better than me! Kids are definitely the power behind our glimmering future.

‘The Geek shall inherit the Earth.’ I once saw those words emblazoned across a T-shirt, and it made me laugh. Little did I realise there was so much truth behind the trope!