Tech Talk, You Don't Stop

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This photo brought to you by Hal, who lets the kids play on his phone. Harumph.

Technology freaks me out. I haven't played a video game since Sonic the Hedgehog and new apps are what I have with my gyno. (As in appointments.) So. This year I'm asking Santa for more stone tablets, a new rotary telephone and some new needles for my gramophone. Also, my horse and buggy needs a detail, my mortar and pestle needs an upgrade and for the children, fresh papyrus and sealing wax. I'd also like a few mason jars of leeches for my migraines, a new pair of rope sandals for thy weary feet, some fossils, a diva cup made of leaves, a woolly dino-mammoth, etc. Thank you kindly, doth good sir.

Wait. I'm on a computer, aren't I. No! Help! Machines! My eye! And my other monocled eye!


How about you all? Are you too techy for your shirt, too techy it hurts? Or is there no tech in your champagne room. Lets talk about tech, baby. I want to tech you up. All night. Just kidding. I prefer smoke signals. Fax me. SOS.

GGC

33 comments:

Desiree | 9:13 PM

Omg, you totally crack me up girlfriend ;)

NOELLE ALOUD | 10:00 PM

TOTAL technophobe here. I don't even own a cell phone, let alone know how to navigate a touch-screen!

And you'd rock a rope sandal. Just sayin'.

twitter.com/eskimojo | 11:16 PM

I have no children so no opinion on this subject, however DAMN I love those puns.

Cave Momma | 12:31 AM

I'm definitely a tech-y person. Not a total techno-nerd (like my husband who likes to build computers and what-not) but I know my way around computers and I LOVE my iphone. So you know my kids will not be technophobes in any way shape or form. They both can play their games and take pictures with my phone and it's awesome.

But whatever, to each their own. As long as you have Hal around, you don't have to know all about that stuff, right?!

Cara | 6:31 AM

While I understand the importance of technology and I know my children will have to understand it in order to function in society, there is a time and place. My daughters are four and two, and when we took a huge driving trip across Canada last summer they watched NO movies. They looked at books, coloured, played games, but no videos. I think there is a difference between being well versed in tech and being completely dependent on it.

Bee | 6:49 AM

HAhaha so funny.
I try to tell people that I am anti technology but that never flys when I have a blackberry for a left hand and a purse full of beeping gadgets.

barbara | 8:36 AM

i'm on the fence. while i love my laptop and see a lot of very cool technology out there, i don't own a real cell phone (just pay as you go for emergencies) and as an avid reader i don't think i would ever buy a kindle. i would rather see my son out in the fresh air, making art and reading books than sitting in front of the computer; i think there is a fine balance... but i really can't wait to get my hands on an ipad ;)

Mel | 8:39 AM

OMG where is Fables hoodie from?

L.L. | 8:53 AM

I hadn't given this topic much thought, my son is only 7 months, until I visited my brother & his wife & their kids over Thanksgiving. But I was blown away by how tech savvy their kids who are 3 and 4 yrs old are! When I came in the 4 yr old was playing a computer game and the 3 yr old was playing a video game. Then later the 4 year old picked up my camera and took pictures and video with it with absolutely no instruction. I was amazed.

The Hojo Family | 9:02 AM

My husband is so much more techy than I am. He has the xbox, the playstation, the wii, and is much more interested in the newest tech. He works for Verizon and is just waiting for the new line of phones to come out.

Me, on the other hand, not so techy. I use our laptop and love it - but thats about it! I don't have a fancy phone. I dont even have internet on my phone. I dont have or want an Ipad or anything like that.

As for our kids, our 3yr. old daughter is getting a leapster as one of her Christmas gifts. Our 6yr. old son has a Nintendo DS and thats about it. They are still young, so all that other stuff would be unreasonable anyways. As of now though they won't be getting cell phones until they are teenagers. My friend is getting her 6yr. old a cell phone for Christmas, and that is a bit too much for me.

Lauren | 9:48 AM

ahhh hahaha you crack my shit up!

*Also the word I had to type in make sure I'm not a bot was "fertated" ha! Snort!

Desi | 10:01 AM

Yeah, I'm a total Luddite. I have a four year old MacBook (the wrist-rest repaired with tape), and a Samsung flip phone circa 2003 (I would LOVE a smartphone, but this one just won't break). Last month, I stood at the search console at the bookstore hunting around for a keyboard or something, until a teenager came over and touched the screen for me. I'm not THAT old!

Steph | 10:12 AM

We're pretty techy around here. Every morning my daughter sits on the bed while I try and wake up from my pregnancy-induced sleeping coma and plays with the iPad. When she gets sick of that she rummages through the photos on my iPhone. I don't see anything wrong with it. My husband is incredible for getting the most of the technology he uses. For his job he organises a HUGE event each year, all conceived in his own brain and does it all on a laptop - not a piece of paper in sight. I know for a fact that the help he gets from various programmes is invaluable to him and he just knows how to "play" with them to get the most out of it. He's never studied computers. I would like my children to be that kind of clever. I'm interested to hear why you think techy things are not so good for kids? I have a little nagging feeling that it might not be 100% okay, and certainly when she's older there'll be plenty of restrictions on tech useage... But I can't see the harm in her playing on the iThings for now... Her attention span isn't that long, anyway!

Steph | 10:15 AM

Just to add to my previous comment - my daughter's not quite two yet.

Liz | 11:42 AM

I love my iphone. Got me through the crazy early nursing days with the baby, and I still use it to get through super long feeding sessions. Angry Birds!

The only problem is that my one-year-old is obsessed with our smart phones. Yikes.

Adrianne | 2:30 PM

I'm not very technologically advanced myself, which might be why I'm not very into having all of the newest gadgets all the time. I don't have kids yet, but this is definitely something I've thought a lot about for when the time comes. I want my kids to be ABLE to use technology to get around in the world, but I don't want them to be completely dependent on it, if that's possible. Basically I want to teach them the "old school" way of doing things (like adding without a calculator)and I want most of their toys to be ones that require imagination and interaction rather than parking them in front of a video game or DVD. And they absolutely will NOT have a cell phone before high school! I'm scared to even say that though because by the time my kids are in school, 5 year olds will probably routinely carry cell phones:(

Clare | 6:12 PM

This post is my new favorite thing. Thanks for the laugh amidst the hell of studying for finals.

Unknown | 8:21 PM

I'm a little bit tech-y, if I do say so myself. But I'm no tech bomb (tech bomb, you're my tech bomb). Sorry, couldn't help joining in.

I do love my iPhone and we have a Wii that we mostly use to stream Netflix movies. I'd like to think that I am balanced and I hope to foster the same balance in my kids.

Anonymous | 3:25 AM

Two months ago, I bought my first cell phone. As in, EVER. It's an iPhone and I'm still relatively clueless about everything it can do. I've downloaded Huffington Post, Twitter and FB but that's it. I'll tell you, though, the camera is awesome. And, unlike Hal, I won't let the kids near it.

Candace | 8:56 AM

I'm a software engineer, my husband is a web developer. We're waaaay over on the geek end of the spectrum. Still working out what that means for our son, I only let him play video games for a limited time, and only on the weekend. I'm thinking about getting him started with one of the kid programming languages if he's interested, I'd much rather see him creating and building with technology than just zoning out.

Glenda | 11:16 AM

My hubby is tech savy. Enjoys building computers so the latest tech item that is out there he has to have and needless to say both of our kids are grown, but they knew how to use a computer at the tender age of 3.


I believe as long as you monitor the games and gadgets and always adult supervised is a must, kids will be okay and they won't become techphobes.

sam | 11:45 AM

What's wrong with letting your kids play with your phone....?

On long trips on the road or by plane with my rear-facing-seat-hater (and too-close-to-your-neighbor-plane-hater), my ipod touch was a LIFE saver. My now 2 year old loooooves playing with my phone, too. He doesn't know how to do anything other than play a color match game I got for him, but he just likes to see pictures of himself in my photos.

The Hojo Family | 12:16 PM

I don't think we're able to comment on your pictures of kidspace but I just had to add that my kids LOOOOVE it there too! We are regulars in the summer time!

GIRL'S GONE CHILD | 12:27 PM

Hojo - we have a membership and go every other weekend AT LEAST in the summer - it's a haul for us but whatever. It's my favorite place to spend the day with the kids. We pack a picnic and run wild until we all collapse. It's FABULOUS there. Almost makes me want to move to Pasadena to be closer. :)

The Hojo Family | 1:07 PM

It's about a 45min. drive for us (we live in Simi) but so totally worth it! My kids can stay for hours in just the stream that they have!

6512 and growing | 1:22 PM

Love the leech idea, though maybe in a clay pot.

I'm all up on my computer and blogging but for some reason I want my kids to look to libraries and dictionaries for their research. Granted, they're only 3 and 5, but somehow I think they can have a full, happy childhood without plugging in, at least for awhile longer.

And they've broken enough of my phones to keep those out of their hot little hands.

renee schwalberg | 4:39 PM

I'm with you. My younger daughter (age 5) started playing Hangman recently and was blowing through all the paper in the house, so I bought her a little chalkboard for Hanukkah. Only much later did I realize that there is probably some electronic gadget that plays Hangman, but my kid? She gets chalk. And for Christmas she's getting a hoop.

Magic27 | 6:16 PM

My mobile is a phone and that's it (no internet, no photos, no music, no touchscreen), I have a computer and am pretty nifty with the web (I use it for work), but that's it. Neither of my daughters (nearly 9 and nearly-ish 7) has any kind of video game and neither has ever asked for one. I have never played any video game. We don't have iPods or MP3 players, we don't have Blu-Ray or TIVO or anything. And we don't live in a cave, either!
I'm not exactly against all the tech stuff, but it doesn't appeal to me at all (what the hell is an iPad actually for?!) and I think that's rubbing off on my girls. They know how to watch videos (carefully selected and never on their own) on YouTube, they can use the DVD player, the elder one can do a little research on Google for school... I'm not a total Luddite, but still. I can't imagine buying them iPhones or anything for years yet.
Also - all this tech stuff is SOOO EXPENSIVE! How does everyone seem to manage to buy it? I can't afford any of these things anyway...

Heidi O. | 7:58 AM

Struggling to embrace technology here. I let my kids use my iphone while waiting for appts. It's worthwhile.

ps. Title made me snort, so thanks!

andrea.d | 8:25 AM

I'm so analog it's pathetic. My husband is tres tech savvy. I keep a little spiral-bound notebook by the computer with step-by-step instructions like "how to upload photos" and "how to play a movie", because he got sick of me asking over and over. Sad. I'm hoping our kids will benefit from the balance, though. I will, however, draw the line at texting while driving a penny-farthing.

Anonymous | 1:29 PM

Technology laughs at me and makes me eat lunch by myself.

Melissa | 3:13 AM

You crack me up...

And I thought that I'd share a story with you. My daughter, who's a little older than Fable, recently was at the Children's Museum near us. There, they have an exhibit with old telephones and if you pick them up, they make other's across the room ring and kids can "play telephone". Well most kids love them... My daughter just discovered them. Now everything is a telephone. She has NEVER had a use for baby telephones. Called MIL, who saves, ok I'll go ahead and say EVERYTHING and she still had an old rotary phone, which my daughter is even now playing with!

I am am not a total technophobe, I think technology has its uses... My daughter will probably have her own IPad in a year or two... mainly for use with visual schedule, and augmentative communication and educational games. But, we'll see. That being said, I am careful...we have many toys with no sound or lights.

mommymae | 12:02 PM

one of the 8 year olds got a $50 digital camera from santa, the kids got a dance game on wii, & the 2 year old got a keyboard. not too techie considering they all want nintendo DSIs & iphones. um, no.