BLOG 178: GET OUT!!!

“I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.” John F. Kennedy

We live in an age of technological advances... I get that. But like with all things advancements in technology must be monitored and even in some cases censored. Restricted use of technology is a good thing. It’s what all right minded people believe. I have been resolute on this point for ... well let me see... about sixteen years. Yeah... do the maths... I have been resolute on restricting technology since I’ve been a parent.

Dontchya just love it when you are wrong and you have to do the great big climb down? I cannot imagine of anything more humiliating that having to do so to your own kid. But do so I must (unless I wish to set him an example for life that admitting your errors is something best ignored). DAMN!!! Dontchya just hate it when you absolutely with every fibre of your being believe that what you are doing is totally and utterly right, especially when you are backed up by everyone you believe to be right thinking?

Well... guess what we were ALL wrong.

And I have to let a smug sixteen know this... AND try to keep some dignity. Tough Gig. But that’s parenting!

Part of this parenting gig (I thought) was to grab your offspring affectionately by the scruff of their neck and boot them out into the glorious sunshine so that they go be kids... the old fashioned way.

There is in every parent the entire unread book of Swallows and Amazons trapped in our psyche... I say unread because come on ... have you ever met anyone who has actually read it? But never the less, we have this image of children having adventures in the great outdoors, climbing trees, building camps and fording streams ...all while being fuelled with nothing more than cheese and pickle sandwiches and lashings of ginger beer.

As soon as the sun makes an appearance on this Sceptred Isle, parents from John o Groats to Lands End are cutting power supplies to Xboxes and Computers and pushing kids out the door telling them ‘to go play’.

A great idea... no where on earth is quite as beautiful as the British Isles when it has the sun on it’s back, and despite having nearly 60 million of us crammed onto this floating land-chunk... there is a mind boggling amount of open space...even in the cities. “GET OUT! And DON’T come back till dusk!” we parents holler at our kids as hey peddle away reluctantly on their (dusty) bikes.

Aren’t we fabulous parents eh? Not for us, the pallid complexioned youths, alienated from real experiences as they spend hour after hour travelling the dank and dark depths of cyberspace! No... our kids will have cheeks like rosy apples, borne of fresh air and interaction with nature and more importantly ...other kids. Our children will benefit brilliantly from the fact we have removed the fuse to their bedrooms so their access to the interweb is no more... “GET OUT! And DON’T come back till dusk” we cry smugly.

My child is mega bright but totally infatuated with the interweb, Xbox and all that goes with it. You need to have to leave a trail of video games from the study to the front door to get him out! (OCD... he has to have them in order, so leaving a trail has him acting like a chicken pecking breadcrumbs!). I thought I’d be up for parent of the year. I rang round other parents and we all agreed to take our kids bikes out of the garage and reintroduce them to getting out and about in the fresh air.

“GET OUT! Go knock for your friends and go to the PARK!” I cried. He stood staring at me with a droopy dazed expression that was interspersed with longing looks over my shoulder back at the study where all manor of technology was causing him separation anxiety. But recognising that I’d flipped the fusebox switch to the room and that none of his equipment would be fired up... he wobbled off in the direction of Josh’s house. (Where I was reliably informed a similar scenario had taken place). Eventually they’d all knocked for each other and had cycled off into the sunshine bathed park.

Eureka ... what a great parent am I!!!

Well I was.... until AOL and Roper Starch published their survey of millions of children born from 1995 onwards.

Kids born from his point on are the so called internet generation, for whom on line activity is as much second nature as the wireless (radio) was to those born in the 1930s and television was to those born in the 1950’s/60's. And without a shadow of a doubt this huge survey has proven that all this fretting about getting our kids outdoors and worrying about technology making the next generation dysfunctional is hugely inaccurate. Not only is it based on no solid evidence, it’s actually not even something new! In fact... parents have been fretting about technology since the wheel caught on as a jolly good idea.

Edwardian parents (born 1910 and earlier) really got their pantaloons in a twist when the pre world war 2 generation refused to go rambling in the woods and preferred to sit in a quiet room and listen to the broadcasts from London’s Alexandra Palace. “What will become of them!” they worried. Well that generation are now in their 70’s and as yet no has actually identified that embracing the technology of the day did them any noticeable harm. In fact Julie Andrews was born in 1935 and has to date shown no tendency to be socially dysfunctional just because she liked listening to the sound of music on her wireless as a youngster (and Dame Julie has more than proven she can run around a hill or two IF she has to!)

Parents born a few decade or so after the Edwardian worry warts had an even more insidious hurdle barring the way to get those kids out the house. They had to deal with the phenomenon that is Television. “You’ll go blind sitting there in front of the goggle-box for hours on end” they cried! Believe it or not it was a popularly held belief that watching an excess of television would burn out the retina and render the viewer not only blind but probably stupid for the rest of their days.

Parents the length and breadth of the UK purchased television cabinets with great big locks and attempted to ration exposure to this monolith of technology... but kids being kids they found a way and refused to ‘go outside to play’ in favour of staying indoors watching programmes with names as ironic as “Why don’t you just switch of your television set and go out and do something less boring instead” (Yes that was a real programme! ...various groups of kids eg. The Belfast Gang, The Birmingham Gang etc would arrive every school holidays to suggest things which might be less boring than watching TV. If the programme had actually succeeded of course then it wouldn't have had an audience). In fact Peter Beardsley the famed English Football player was born in 1961 and despite having grown up with the dazzle and allure that was the hey day of British Television, still managed to get outside enough to kick a ball.

So what of today’s, kids? It’s hardly radio and TV (which were highly censored and monitored) that they are exposed to... they have the largely unmonitored internet and those dreadfully violent games! They can’t possibly be thriving setting in their bedrooms alone pressing buttons on a keyboard or handset, blowing up aliens or looking at porn! GOOD parents of course will have to be the censor... take out the fuse and reintroduce those kids to the great outdoors!!!... NOW!

Really?

Actually no.

AOL and Roper Starch found that kids aged 9-17 who spend in excess of 20 hours per week on the internet have an increased interest in current event (44%). It also found that X-box and its equivalents (where kids play video games online together but from different locations) improved the quality of friendships (39%) and the ability to give clear concise instructions (37%).

Ah... but 20 hrs on the interweb has got to make them fall behind in their homework...surely!

Errrr... again not really...

In fact the research showed that 20hrs social interweb use resulted in improvements in written and language skills (36%) and a whopping 43% of kids showed better school performance overall as a result.

DAMN!

Perfectly functional kids... and not a bicycle, a cheese and pickle sandwich, a bottle of ginger beer or a woodland adventure in sight!

Dontchya just hate it when you are wrong?! But hey ho... the true point of being a parent is to be a good role model and a good role model MUST be able to acknowledge when they got it wrong. (DAMN!!!)

I have no choice. The cyber geek wins!

The climb down cometh!

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