The Digital World: Where the Next Generation is Living and Thriving
- emmamax29
- Feb 6, 2020
- 2 min read
This week in my EDU 250 class, Taylor lead our class's rotating chair discussion, and we talked about some aspects of the article "Move Over Gen Z, Generation Alpha Is The One To Watch" (linked below). This article focuses on what is important in a kid's life in today's world. For example, the second sentence of this article quotes a child from a video discussing the role technology plays in their life, saying "I'd rather have an iPad- better than a dog." While most adults today that did not grow up with technology criticize how kids use it, our class discussion brought to light all of the positive aspects of technology when it is used for productivity.
As mentioned in my previous post, technology changes what childhood is like nowadays. One question Taylor raised that I found especially intriguing was, "How does technology affect the creativity of kids today?". My initial response was that it hinders kids from thinking for themselves, or coming up with original understandings or explanations, since they can get answers for any question they have almost immediately, thanks to Google. Kids don't try something and fail repeatedly- like making a paper airplane. Not even twenty years ago, in order to make a paper airplane, you either had to be taught how to fold it correctly by someone, or you folded and refolded until it worked (whether or not it was the "right" way to do it). Today, kids can just look up the best way to build a paper airplane on YouTube and eliminate the struggle.
However, as I listened to the responses of my classmates and my teacher, I realized that technology provides an outlet for kids to express their imaginations that was not available to the generations before. Kids can make their own worlds through applications like Minecraft, they can create 3D drawings, they can share their experiences through video blogs. These ways of presenting ideas kids have in their mind was never available, until now. After thinking this over and realizing the many uses of technology, I believe that kids are still creative and have an imagination, they're just able to do different things with their ideas because of technology.
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