The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World by Jordan Shapiro explores the impact of today’s technology on children’s development and education. With the increase of access of mobile devices to younger children, there is still a lot of debate on how much of “screen time” is good for kids and how much is already damaging.
Jordan Shapiro argues that parents who see technology use as inherently bad are wrong. Many of their concerns are based on old fashioned beliefs and outdated research.
Personally, I agree on the following:
1. Our kids need to be exposed with digital devices and be comfortable using them. Quennie and I have different views about using ebooks for Gab. But Shapiro foresees that the kids today will be much more engaged with digital devices once they go to college and work. We already experience an increase in online meetings these past years. The future will have more of them. Our kids need to be ready for these changes.
2. Many games have educational benefits that will prepare our kids in the workplace. I personally like strategy games and multiplayer games. Strategy games helps develop critical thinking, and even thinking outside of the box. I like it when Gab shows me how he beats a boss in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom using a new weapon he has forged. Or how Gab will show me a new build order he developed to conquer all cities in Polytopia.
I find multiplayer games important in developing collaboration skills. The workplace of the future will be highly connected with several teams working on a single project. Many games can give our kids a similar environment to prepare.
3. Our kids will be living in a more connected world. Today, we just see virtual meetings. In the future, it will be Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Imagine how much more change these technology will be bringing. As parents, we don’t have enough experience with these new technology. Thus, our kids would have to navigate this digital landscape on their own.
However, I felt that the book has little content to comfort the parents. It discuss more about the changes that are happening and will happen. Technology will continue to disrupt. The education system needs to adapt. The digital world will have advantages and disadvantages for our children.
For parents, all it can say is that things will turn out ok. Changes have been happening even when we were kids. Yet, our generation turned out to be fine despite what naysayers say. As a parent though, I was hoping for actionable advice on how to better prepare our son for these changes. Thus, the book still left me looking for answers.
