technology and my kids

Someone recently brought it to my attention that Kate has yet to be featured in a blog post (I'll give you a hint--it wasn't Elia). I promised to change that.

I took Kate to the orthodontist yesterday. After sleeping one night in the same room over Christmas Break, Greg and I noticed that she grinds her teeth, so we mentioned this to our dentist who referred her to an orthodontist who can do 3-D scans to check her airways, jaw placement, etc. This was rather exciting for Kate, as she loves nothing more than quality time with a parent (which rather ironically, the Tooth Fairy just gave her a coupon for, though I doubt she'll cash it in for a trip to the orthodontist). The X-ray imaging was quick and painless and contains as much radiation, we were told, as a day in Chicago. Which is either really good for the X-ray, or really bad for Chicago. Anyway, the orthodontic assistant was super nice and explained things to Kate until in popped the young energetic dentist who excitedly talked for 20 minutes non-stop. He was able to manipulate the images on the screen so we could go from her skull to viewing just her maxilla, to her adenoids, and then rotate her head to get the whole picture. He said that while her airways seemed okay, her adult top eye teeth are coming into the wrong "parking place" (doctors have a tendency to use metaphors with me--do they think my chimney is clogged?), and as a result those baby teeth will not be coming out on their own. He continued on saying that in one world we would only have the 2-D images available at the dentist office, and would have assumed the teeth were coming in fine. In another world we would be able to tell the eye teeth are not only headed in the wrong direction (towards the roof of her mouth), but are backwards, and would be able to be proactive about it. He paused and we stared silently at each other. "So..." I hesitated, "what world are we in?" Turns out, the second (and, that that should have been clear) but I was just so thrown off by all of this newfangled technology, and by a doctor who in another world I could have babysat.

So what is this brave new world we’re living in where we can predict the future of our teeth? Last week Kate was telling me about an assignment that was due in her tech class. She hauled out her laptop and opened up the program 123D Design to show me how she was able to create an image and print it on a 3D printer. She said how hard it was, but the whole time her fingers were moving at lightning speed, changing shapes and sizes and "extruding" parts of her design. My baby, extruding! (That's an okay word, I googled it.)

Kate and I took a walk the other day (again, no coupon exchanged hands), and she asked me when I got my first cell phone, to which I replied after college. Sometimes I try to explain what it was like before the Internet when we looked for information in books, or before cell phones, when the home phone would ring and we had no idea who it was or who it was for. When my phone dies now, or if I forget it at home, I feel so off--like what would I do if I got stuck in the ditch, or couldn't remember if we had any butter at home. And that was what it was like 100% of the time, up until a few years ago.

I came across this slide show of 25 things babies born in 2017 won't know. Included in this list are worrying why someone is late, landline phones, over-the-air television, getting directions, not knowing something, and talking to people you're sitting with during dinner. All of these are positive changes, except for the last one, of course, a habit that drives me crazy to no end. Kate knows we will not be letting her have a smartphone for many, many years, for reasons I will explain in great depth to you at a different time (so you have that to look forward to) but my point is that technology is freaking a-mazing! Pardon my French, but it is. I love that I can google directions, recipes, and "what did Paul Harvey look like" and have immediate answers. I love that there are not only teeth-saving, but life-saving advancements constantly changing our quality of life, and that we can feel connected to people far away, and live safer. When I think of how far technology has come in my lifetime alone, it makes me wonder what the next 41 years will bring. I am not afraid of technology, (of course until the machines rise up against us, as in the premise of Avengers: Age of Ultron), but I am sometimes afraid of how it will be used--specifically the Internet, and how it so very directly effects our children's developing minds and relationships. They are growing up in a world where they will never be alone, but will be alone-together, always.

Greg teaches a media class and one assignment he always gives is a 3-day media fast, which inevitably almost kills some teenagers. My generation grew up being told that too much television will rot our brains (or was that just my mom?) and my brother and I weren’t allowed to have a gaming station (though I have been known to play a mean round of Tetris on a Game Boy) mostly because kids who played would sit in front of a screen for hours and we should be outside instead. All of this to say, I want my kids to be well-versed in technology…they have to be, so they can teach me one day. But I also want my kids to be bored, quite often. Because from boredom comes great thoughts, creativity, and connections. And, until they move out of our house, it’ll be our job to see to it that this happens, which is just fine with me, because I can bore people with the best of 'em!