Will Technology Make Our Children Kinder?

It’s a different world now, from the world I grew up in.  There are computers, cell phones and text messaging.  There is Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  

People always wear seatbelts, kids don’t ride in the ‘way back’ of station wagons anymore; SUVs exist now, and phones only have cords- if you did what I did and bought a stainless steel retro-looking one to match your kitchen appliances.

And people are REALLY connected now.  

In some ways our children are safer.  Parents can keep track of their children more easily...  Children have cell phones now; this beats the- ‘I’m going to be at Mary’s’ any day.

But, we have to monitor our children's online activities now…

The term ‘online’ wasn’t even in the dictionary when I was a kid.  Heck, I never imagined that people would be able to take their ‘laptop computers’ to a store, sit down, and buy brewed coffee, not instant, and sit around and work and not have to plug anything in. 

I never imagined you could have a very small phone that you carried around in your pocket.  And that, on that very small phone, you could type an instant message to someone else, or read the news of the day, or get directions to where you are going.

So where does this leave our children?

Our children are the first generation growing up with incredible cell phones and laptops… AND social media.  

Everyone is on Facebook… 

I recently attended my 25 year '8^th grade reunion weekend'.  There were events all weekend long, and the attendance was incredible.  And the organizers said it wouldn’t have been possible without Facebook… because they were able to ‘find people’.

You can be found now; it’s difficult to ‘drop off the face of the earth’. 

And I’m wondering, bear with me here, that if an entire generation is growing up in an inter-connected world: will this generation, subconsciously and consciously, be a little more thoughtful… and kinder? 

I don’t mean to come off like, ‘kids will be nicer because they know that if they’re not- it’ll get around with texting and Facebook'…

And PARENTS are and should be, their children's greatest teachers about being kind...

But I think that when people are connected with other people, part of an organization, part of anything, when you are involved in a cause, or just a social event- I think you become kinder, I think you think about others more, and that, at its essence, is kindness...  or at least I like to think so…

So the question remains, 

Will Technology Make Our Children Kinder? 

I hope so.

 

Original DC Metro Moms Post

 

When Nicole isn’t remembering when she got her first VCR, she’s over at BananaBlueberry, where she likes to concentrate on the good stuff.