Playing on the Computer

For years, I recall telling my kids to "stop playing on the computer" and get back to their homework, chores, or whatever else they were supposed to be doing. Even worse, when I had something I had to do (work, primarily) on the sole machine in the house, it was almost always tied up. And the time they spent. Wow. Hours and hours staring at the blinking box and tapping away at the keyboard.

It began with rudimentary games and crude graphics or sound-generating programs on our old 512k RAM (amazing, huh?) Mac. Then a PC with an amazing CD-based encyclopaedia that I couldn't believe fit in my hand. That same machine, though it was replaced every few years with one faster or more powerful, was one day tied to a magical information source known as the Internet. So now the kids could e-mail, IM, and trade photos, documents, etc., with all their friends. Why? I guess because they could.

Of course high school brought Word reports and even Excel pages and PowerPoint presentations for classes (and more IM and sharing with friends). Soon video editing and music software was added. But I guess the last time I ever said "quit playing on the computer," was when we finally had more than one machine in the house and it was mysteriously connected by means of a wireless router that my kids set up (of course).

Soon a dozen devices in the house (game systems, TiVo, laptops, etc.) were all connected to the Internet and the kids (now young adults) were playing interactive games and flying simulators and fighting virtual battles with people all over the world. It was enough to make my head swim.

But now the kids are mostly living in homes of their own (though they still log-on to play games with each other). I see them work through college programs (even advanced degrees) and into jobs and I marvel at the technical expertise they carry with them.

Not only is the technology inherently not scary to them, but they exude confidence in a fluent literacy for computer systems that many (OK, most) of my generation don't have. Like my ninth grade French teacher used to urge us to do, they "think" in this foreign language of bits and bytes. They do things like file management, document manipulation, transfer and posting, downloading and immediately using new software, etc., all as if it were second nature. Maybe because it is second nature. They are now effectively bilingual--analog and digital.

So perhaps instead of complaining about them spending all that time playing on the computer, I should have "played" on the computer with them. Who knew?