Technology has fast become a ‘normal’ part of every day life, hasn’t it? It’s hard to imagine life without cell phones, let alone SmartPhones. We’ve sure come a long way since the abacus (the first known calculator) was first invented in 2400 BC.
When I was a kid growing up, it was a big deal when we got an Atari – our friends all wanted to come over to our house and play games like pong and space invaders. Even VCR’s were a big deal – my parents gave me their first VCR that had a wired remote when I moved out and got a place of my own. But kids now? They get introduced to all the cool toys at early ages.
Princess Nagger has always been an absorbent sponge – she showed interest in technology at a very early age, beginning with the remote control:
See that look on her face? Mischief abounds. Simply by observing she has figured out how to use all subsequent remotes – she’s a champion using the DVR remote to record her favorite shows like Phineas and Ferb and iCarly. She complains if the DVR gets too full of my shows, if there’s something she wants to record that there’s no room for.
When she was a baby, she had to put up with non-technological fun, like her exersaucer:
Yes, that’s a future blackmail picture, hence the spiked ‘do. Of course she still had her usual non-technological fun – give her a box to play in, and she was quite content:
The writing was on the wall for future phone fun:
As she grew, so did her interest in anything technological. Especially if it happened to be a dinosaur, like her remote-control Spike:
She asked Santa for a Nintendo DSi XL this past Christmas – and got it, but now they’ve come out with the 3DS she now says she has to have. So she’s going to let me sell her DSi XL on eBay and save up the difference to acquire the 3DS. My hubby also (finally) got me the Galaxy Tablet he had promised for my Mother’s Day present – guess who’s been monopolizing it? You guessed it – Princess Nagger has been thoroughly enjoying playing Angry Birds and some shark game on what she refers to as a ‘giant screen’. I’m glad she’s enjoying my Mother’s Day gift.
And of course we have a fun stash of video games – much better ones than when I was a kid with the Atari. Now it’s Game Cube, Wii and PS2 (I steadfastly refuse to buy a PS3 until they make them backwards compatible so we can continue to enjoy our PS1 and Ps2 games):
It used to be that I would play all the fun video games (at her insistence) while she watched – now she plays them (and kicks my butt every time we play Wii Bowling) and rarely needs my help to get her through a level. She ‘helps’ me get through levels of Angry Birds, and I ‘help’ her when she gets stuck. When I got a Kindle for my birthday, the first books I downloaded on it were dinosaur and dragon books for her to read – which she did quite enthusiastically.
At least now I have my Kindle back all to myself, and she thinks it’s quite fun that we have matching book lights, so when it’s time for bed we turn off the lights and read a couple of chapters together in the dark – she with one of her favorite ‘regular’ books, me with my Kindle.
It just boggles the mind how far we’ve come from when we were kids and personal computers were a dream – and now? Princess Nagger happily utilizes my hand-me-down laptop to play fun games at JumpStart, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney, and now more recently, Facebook.
At least I don’t feel guilty about the evenings spent on my computer – we’re all hanging out together in the Summer House, hubby on his computer and Princess Nagger on hers. 21st Century ‘Family Time’. Princess Nagger’s come a long way from her first foray into technology with her Barbie laptop – but it’s also a rude awakening to me that she’s growing up fast.
What about you – are your kids tech-savvy?
This Kid Technological Spin Cycle was brought to you in part by Jen, who as Sprite’s Keeper will undoubtedly have a technological genius on her hands as Sprite gets older. Stop by and check out the other Spinners and see who loves technology and who doesn’t. You might learn something.
My son is definitely tech savvy as well as his kids…all five of them!!! Ha!! When they come to visit..everyone is either on the puter or their phone. We talk periodically!!
Hugs
SueAnn
My 5yo son is right in line with Princess Nagger. I’ve been teaching him how to type his name and stuff in MS Word, too. One of the benefits of all this technology is that he’s ahead of the game with reading and math – he’ll actually look at a word and sound out the letters to read what it says, and he’s not even in kindergarten yet.
Oh – and he taught himself to spell STOP because I was tickling him! It was hilarious!
Cheryl M. would like you to read ..What the Hell Wednesday
After thinking about how beautiful your daughter is (OMG – the cuteness of those baby pictures!!), I laughed at your 21st century “family time.” Mostly because it’s ours, too. Any given evening in our home will find Beloved in the living room on his laptop, me in the dining room on my laptop, and The Young One in the upstairs foyer on his computer (I refuse to let him move it to his bedroom; this way I can just look up the stairs and see what he’s up to). We IM each other on Yahoo. LOL
Turbo is way ahead of me on the Wii. The kid is a whiz. Bruiser is fascinated by the phone. He will turn anything into a phone and carry on conversations just like he sees us doing. We have to take the batteries out of one of the Wii controllers so he can “play” with Turbo and mess up Turbo’s game.
I also refuse to get a PS3 until they are backwards compatible. I am seriously thinking about getting a new or refurbished PS2 however. And I am sure an x-box is in our future too. Turbo will want to play games more geared towards that platform before too long.
Argh! The kid is already into everything! I’m doomed. I love the pictures of PN with the gadgets! Talk about researching, :-). You’re linked!
Your photo of Princess Nagger with the remote control reminded me of when my kids were babies. They used to be able to tell the difference between the real remote and the pretend remote and refused to use the pretend remote.
Oh it’s so good to be reading your blog again! Especially with those adorable pics of PN! And yes, I can’t believe how tech savy kids are these days! But hey family comoputer time is family time!
PS Mike and I opened the Apple Wine…..Delicious!!! Why didn’t I buy more?
My boy learned to turn on the TV with remote control at 8 months old
I remember getting call waiting. I was in 2nd grade. That was BIG time. Or learning to use a computer on a mac with a blog floppy disk.
Tara sure is, much like PN, she came by in naturally. She never knew me not to be sitting in front of a laptop as I worked at home. She’s had a cell phone since she was six. As well as the parade of GameCubes, Gameboys, DS, Wii, laptops and desktop. Like my iPhone her’s has become part of her anatomy, sending 10,500 texts this past month. Like mother like daughter!
The 3DS is pretty cool, but my 6 year old can’t play it on the 3D setting because apparently it can damage kids eyes when they are that old. And that’s not urban legend, it’s actually in the owners manual.
I love the progression of Princess Nagger through the years. It really shows just how they take to technology.