Don't fear the tech

After having taken some time out of blog writing for December while we celebrated the biggest birthday month in the family, I am back with some new content.

Sometime in recent weeks I saw the image below, and well, it bugged me.

I mean I get many of us want a more natural way for our babies if we are interested in holistic well-being, however, I don’t ever believe and one thing is singularly good or bad. After all I am typing this now on a computer and you are either reading on one, or on a mobile device.

Anyone over the age of 50 has likely had access to tech for decades. I was only 7 the first time I played on a games console, and that is more decades ago now than I want to admit!

Another thing I hate in the raising of offspring is hypocrasy, and I see this often in parents saying this like this meme, while spending hours scrolling social media. In those cases I can’t help but see where we often get triggered by our young peoples actions for doing things we are really not liking in ourselves.

So here is the image that rattled me:

So here is what I have to say on this:

Bullshit!

Pure bullshit!!

My eldest daughter is my dedicated artist. She draws all day long!
On paper.
On her tablet.
On herself.

Her dad is a digital artist, I'm glad she has that medium to learn art on too! It taught her skills she took from touch screen to pencil. Oh and she learns a lot of her technique from, you guessed it, watching videos of other artists freely sharing their skills on You Tube, Instagram and TikTok!

My middle daughter is the write. She researches and writes all day on her tablet, she's always telling me new things she can create stories about, or new things she's learned in stories she's read. She can spend a whole day writing chapters for a book!
She makes character lists.
She makes story outlines.
She can capture a thought while it’s in her head in the middle of something else.

The youngest is the animal lover and mover. Here is what I have learned from watching her play games all day.
It has never stopped her moving and exploring.
She is the resident gymnast.
She can tell me things about animals that I have never known in all those previously mentioned decades.
And everything she has learned, she has learned from reading or watching on an electronic device.

Remember centuries ago when people tried to stop the general public from reading books, because it opened minds. Well I believe having the world at our finger tips through technology opens our minds to even more.

I believe by giving my daughters all day to create on their tablets they don't see them as something restrictive and limiting, they use them as the tools they were designed to be, just as I use my phone and laptop and their dad uses his PC!