N.E.R.F.

Technobabble

almostlovers:

I really, really hate technology sometimes.

I realise the irony of this even as I type it out on my Macbook. But the thing about technology that annoys me isn’t about whether it’s breaking down human communication or not, or about my fear of robots over-taking the world that stems from too much Battlestar Galactica and Terminator.

It’s the kids.

You know the ones. The 7-year-olds on trains and buses glued to the PSPs or DSes in their hands. The 10-year-olds all over Facebook and Twitter, informing you about their crush on Robert Pattinson or how much they hate their siblings. The 5-year-olds who furtively hover over you while you’re texting on your phone, and the next moment, you know you won’t be getting it back for the next half hour as they try out all the games on it. Heck, even the parents who boast about their 2-year-old toddlers mastering the skill of operating the DVD player or computer piss me off. This phenomenon almost reaches the point of ridiculousness in Singapore, where most children in Primary schools are already toting expensive cell phones as if they were mere toys.

Instead of comparing the number of cool stickers they’ve collected, these kids are worrying about whether they own the newest gadget or not. They have never touched a single Enid Blyton or The Babysitters’ Club book, or spent hours folding origami boxes and animals. On birthdays or Christmas, board games and toy sets are overshadowed by XBoxes and Wiis.

Is that impossible to keep them in that bubble a little longer? The one where all you really care about is day-dreaming of impossible but absolutely wonderful adventures, without being limited by a 4-inch handheld screen? You’d think that since everybody will most likely spend the rest of their lives in front of a computer screen, they’d make sure that children have the least possible exposure to pixels.

I agree wholeheartedly! It’s a terrible vicious cycle of kiasu-ism, kids swamped in technology because parents think their kids need to learn how to cope with being swamped in technology. And it’s much worse than when our generation were sent for all manner of extra-curricular lessons with these same intentions, because it’s so much easier to buy a computer than hire a teacher.