Just yesterday, I was discussing with my brother about something I thought was funny until the real action takes place. And it was about how I would raise my children in the midst of the whole technological chaos. As much as we don't want to think about it, the digital age have come to stay and we must find ways to balance our living.
Every single day, a new baby is born and with every coming day, a new idea to make the digital world strive is brought up. Even though many ideas are to make living easier, we can't deny that it is also causing harms especially addictions to many today. So having parents who are digital conscious and learned, kids will utilise it better.
If parents should take the route of keeping their children away from the digital world, it will not only be limiting for the children but also be quite impossible for them not to learn it elsewhere and even risk learning all the bad aspects about the digital world before the good ones. So I'm in full support of parents guiding their children through.
While having the chat with my brother, I said I would take advantage of the digital world in raising my children and in what way? I realize I've learnt so much thanks to videos, write ups and whatever way the digital world has used to teach me. What if we could make our kids to learn from the digital world while we actively guide them?
Even to adults, the digital world is vast and can't be navigated easily especially when faced with a new feature or tech. A guide is always important and that is why apps give one once a new user downloads and tries to use their app. Imagine a little kid, even if the kid is smart, navigating a new space digitally, he or she needs close guidance.
Tip 1
I believe children tend to listen more to the person they love and trust right from when they are little and their parents are the ones they trust first, I mean, you have to make your kids trust you before anyone else. This will build a good foundation to bring them closer to learn everything they need to know first from you.
Tip 2
No parents who is digital illiterate can teach and guide a smart kid right, so one of the most important is being smart with these smart devices and know just well enough to guide them to know what to do and where to go when they use their devices. Kids are very fast in learning, well, most of them. So you have to be fast too.
On a call with a friend, she was lamenting about not going for a course that will make her go deeper into digital based professions as the world is heading to that direction and many people are already trying to keep up with it. I felt so grateful that I have the knowledge I have now before I have my kids in the future to teach them.
Tip 3
Engage them early and be with them as long as you can to keep them active. There are countless trainings you can sign your kids up, they should learn alongside other kids early about tech, Web3 and all the good stuffs the digital world has to offer. Imagine your child is great in crypto trading or web designing as early as ten, isn't that cool?
Tip 4
While everything could go fine guiding our kids closely in being digitally learned, there are kids who would tend to learn from the internet the wrong things that shouldn't be, it's actually expected being exposed early enough to the internet which can't be avoided in our world today. It's where prayers and reminder to act wisely come to play, it is the duty of the parents.
I believe children will do exploit with digital opportunities if they are allowed in the future but without good enough guidance, they can also cause havoc in the world using technology. So parents have a responsibility towards them and schools also have roles to play to make the outcome be positive to the world at large.
Images are AI generated