Growing up — Then and now
“Lemme show you the photos and videos I took on my iPad Mini this week,” said 4-year-old Kira, enthusiastically, having graduated from her iPod Touch.
“What,” exclaimed the partly technoramus (tech–ignoramus) grandma, in awe.
Sure enough, the nursery school student’s know-how of audio/video downloading, videotaping and photography considerably surpasses mine. Kira’s 9-year-old sister, Anokha, Jana (A.J.) has been proficient in Skyping, doing Face(book) time and more; apps, iCloud, Safari, Youtube and texting are all at the tip of her tongue. They have individual computers in their private school. Most of their toys are electronic gizmos. The girls now prefer to play a variety of games, read and listen to music on their iPad or their parents’ iPhone than enjoy actual books or CDs. They dance in front of the iPad camera. When bored, there is always the funny Photobooth to experiment with outrageous contortions of your own picture!
They also entertain themselves with endless talks with ‘Siri’. Here is a recent exchange that hit my ears:
A.J.: Hello, Siri! You are my personal genie. Call me ‘Princess Pink.’
Siri: Greetings, earthling, oops, Princess Pink!
A.J.: Can you be my best friend?
Siri: Sorry, I’m your assistant.
A.J.: I like you a lot. Do you like me?
Siri: I’d rather not say.
A.J.: Can you come out of the iPad and show me where the bathroom is?
Siri: Can’t locate any public toilet.
A.J.: Can you sing, ‘What did the fox say’ for me?
Siri: I can’t.
A.J.: You’re so stubborn. I command you to, or else you’ll be fired!
Siri: You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, but if you insist, here it is. (Siri recites a poem from her stock –“I could while away the hours…”)
A.J.: (Applause!)That’s good. Now shall I sing for you?
Siri: I’d rather you don’t.
A.J.: That’s not very polite.
Siri: I don’t like these arbitrary categories.
A.J.: Why not? I thought you were a nice person.
Siri: I’m glad you think so. Now let us get back to work.
And so it goes on. With an ipal, who needs real pals, right?
My teenage grandnephews and nieces here and in India are into Twitter, Tweetchat parties, Omegle, Tinychat or Meebochat. (‘Chat’ meant a nice dialog in my vocabulary up until recently!) Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and others have become essential parts of our daily lives, like bread or milk. Selfies are posted on a regular basis. Today’s kids are frighteningly smart and techno-savvy. With this tsunami of technology all around, I feel like Rip van Winkle, with half a mind to withdraw into a cave. But we have to go with the flow, get into this arena of ever-changing modern day life; no alternative.
I do a flash back to my childhood some five to six decades ago. The only toys I had, even as a privileged child in a well-to-do family, were a doll, a couple of wooden pots and pans and a jump rope. The games we thoroughly enjoyed were playing with marbles, hide-and-seek and similar simple ones. When we had completed our homework on school days, we could run over to the neighbors’ or friends’ house to play. The best pastimes were climbing the mango or jambu trees or lining up for an outdoor swing. I looked forward to swimming in the river at the edge of our property with my sister and cousins or rowing a kayak with my grandpa to a small island nearby to pick fresh vegetables and watermelon during summer vacations. It was a happy, close-to-nature childhood.
Now my 1-year-old grandson has ‘play dates!’ Among the middle and upper-class city dwellers, every moment of their kids’ lives is being carefully choreographed and planned by the parents. The young ones can’t safely play outdoors or do anything without close adult supervision, for sure. ‘Sleep under,’ as opposed to ‘sleep over’— staying at a friend’s house till late at night and then being chauffeured back home safe by mom or dad, thus not spending the night there — has become popular now-a-days, for a variety of reasons. More work but less worry for parents. The world is a cloistered place for today’s children. This may be a “free country,” but are we, adults and children alike, really “free” in the essential sense of the word?
We, as parents and grandparents, want our kids to have the best of everything. Many start off by giving the next generation all the things they didn’t have while growing up, on a silver platter. But are we giving them a better life or just better toys so they can be one-up with their peers and get instant gratification? How about teaching them the meaning of hard work and having to earn the rewards? What about encouraging them to spend some time outdoors, under adult supervision, to get fresh air, exercise and to get to know nature? There are many parks even in cities. Otherwise, our smart younger generation will shrink gradually into a techno-world and become narcissistic aliens. But I guess when you gain something, you always lose something else in the evolutionary process. And that’s my biggest concern and conundrum.
Susheela Ravindranathan is a retired pediatrician and published poet, living in Brooksville, who frequently writes articles on health matters and poems in ethnic magazines. Email her at [email protected].
