The world has changed, in so many ways, between when you were a child and today. Parents who are part of Generation X are the first to raise children (and teens) in a world where the internet is so prevalent. Times have changed, in so many ways!
The Washington Post has an article titled “Parenting as a Gen Xer: We’re the first generation of parents in the age of iEverything”. It was written by Allison Slater Tate and posted on September 19, 2014. In it, she comments on the difficulties faced by parent who can’t understand why their kids won’t look up from their phones to enjoy the view.
People that were born between 1965 and 1984 are part of Generation X (or “Gen X”). That puts this group as between the ages of 30 and 49 (and includes me). Some might say we grew up in a world “before the internet”. The offspring of those in Generation X grew up using the internet.
When we were teens, and wanted to secretly communicate with a friend during class, there was only one way to do it. We wrote what we wanted to say on notebook paper, folded it into intricate origami-like shapes, and handed it to our friend during the passing period.
This would be a foreign concept to teens today who would wonder why we didn’t just send our friends a text. That would have been so much easier, right?
Some of us were excited when Apple gave everyone an entire U2 album for free – right there in our iTunes! Our kids are asking “Who is U2?”
For many of us, the first time we intentionally spent time watching other people play a video game was in college. Somebody else brought a console to the dorms and hooked it up to a TV. We took turns playing Tetris until the wee hours of the morning. Or, everyone just watched one person play the game for hours on end.
Today, kids and teens can go online to Twitch and watch complete strangers streaming live video of their screen as they play a video game. Your teens might enter the chat room to talk with other people who are watching the game. Or, they can go to YouTube and watch a recorded version of someone playing a video game.
We searched the internet to look for stuff we needed to write about for college papers. Our kids are using the internet to add to online discussions with their teacher and classmates (for participation points).
They are also going online in order to socialize with their friends. This is quite different from when we were younger and had to use the telephone to socialize. We could only go as far as the phone cord would stretch, and our parents could hear every word we said!
Image by Picture Youth on Flickr.
Related Articles:
* Teaching Teenagers About The Danger Of Internet Predators
* Should You Buy Your Child a Cell Phone?
* Track Your Child Through Their Cell Phone