₦airaland Forum

I look at the generation of my kids and I feel sad for them majorly because unbeknownst to them, I think technology destroyed the fun of being a child for them. A few days ago, a report came out that the Gen Z’s are the least intelligent generation who couldn’t do better than the immediate previous generation. This report shouldn’t shock anyone. Today, fun for kids is all about screens – they literally get lost spending hours without end on tiktok, youtube, Instagram, facebook, snapchat, AI’s and many other social vices.

Back in my days, our best bet at screens was watching Ninja movies or wrestling on black and white TVs through the windows of neighbours. If this was not the case, we were outdoors inventing plays to keep our minds busy with games like War Start, Police and Thief, Monkey Post, Cover bottle Soccer played on smoothly cemented floors, flying kites on the street, riding wheel with clothes hanger, playing skipping ropes, building cars with woods and cartons, shooting rubber bands, hunting lizards with catapults, or if these were not the case, we were playing ‘mama and papa’ play with girls our age and cooking play food with tin tomatoes containers as pots…damn, recalling and writing all these brings smile to my face. What a childhood we had!

Today, the above is not the case as the average 4 to 25 year olds are hooked on screens all-day-long. Take the screens from them and they are completely useless to themselves and the society. I really don’t envy this generation even though I would do all I can within my power to snatch my kids from the technology ruining the childhood of today’s kids.

For this very reason, I will be delaying the age when my kids would have a phone of their own and even when I do get them a phone, it will be a basic phone like an old skool Nokia phone where the most advanced game they can play is snake and the rat while I train their minds and bodies with games like Chess, Scrabble, Badminton, Table Tennis, Swimming and Soccer. What’s your take on this, would you rather be born in the Gen Z era or you are ok with your generation?

Everything you stated is spot on, but we also have to look at where the world stands today. Everything starts and ends on the screen. As at today, you don’t even need a brain to make things happen.

Our own generation flowed with what was demanded at that time. Look at this generation today, I became a computer literate at 16 years old and now, you find a 10 year old telling you i7 tends to be slow on multiple task.

Learnt my first programming language at 20 YEARS OLD. As a matter of fact, I didn’t learn out of free will, my first employer sponsored me. Is that the case today? No!

I KNOW a 10 year old already doing wonders on html, Python and Java.

Let’s just leave them alone! They were made from our sweat. We all one way or the other contributed to the tech they enjoy today.

If you say they are missing, don’t you think we also missed with the information’s, internet speed and bandwidth available to them?

When the calculator was first introduced, educators had some reservations as to it's effects on the computational prowess of kids. Look at us today! Thus, I agree with the functionality School of thought that society will find a way around such "shocks".

MockingBird:
I would do all I can within my power to snatch my kids from the technology ruining the childhood of today’s kids.

I do often lament that children today have far too many distractions to reading books or inventing games to play, but I'm glad you recognise the parent's role in this.

I don't have young children anymore, but had my sister's kids f14, m12 and f8, visit for Christmas, and had to limit their technology use. It did mean I had to engage them more, but the pleasure was going to museums with them, reading books playing monopoly and chess and all of us learning to play the penny whistle. Even their mother was amazed at the effort needed to drag them away from their tablets and phones, and has decided to structure their day better so tech use is minimized.

Flip side though is while children of today might not have the depth of knowledge past generations might have, they sure do know about more stuff than my generation did at their age, which for all intent include neighbours through who's windows I could watch telly. They are preparing for a different world to mine, is what I think, but those who invest time in their children so tech doesn't raise them would likely do better in life, though I'd bet that's debatable.

HacheNoire:
Everything you stated is spot on, but we also have to look at where the world stands today. Everything starts and ends on the screen. As at today, you don’t even need a brain to make things happen.

Our own generation flowed with what was demanded at that time. Look at this generation today, I became a computer literate at 16 years old and now, you find a 10 year old telling you i7 tends to be slow on multiple task.

Learnt my first programming language at 20 YEARS OLD. As a matter of fact, I didn’t learn out of free will, my first employer sponsored me. Is that the case today? No!

I KNOW a 10 year old already doing wonders on html, Python and Java.

Let’s just leave them alone! They were made from our sweat. We all one way or the other contributed to the tech they enjoy today.

If you say they are missing, don’t you think we also missed with the information’s, internet speed and bandwidth available to them?

A 10 year old which you said is already doing wonders on python, Java and html is still a child whichever way you look at it. While it may appear great now, I assure you it is not. Now he may be spending upwards of 5 hours everyday coding and staring at screens, taking gigs and thinking of money when he should be interacting with his peers and learning social skills he will need later in life. If he picked this skill up early and relatively effortlessly, he still needs to be guided, monitored and mentored with his screen time regulated.

budaatum:
I do often lament that children today have far too many distractions to reading books or inventing games to play, but I'm glad you recognise the parent's role in this.

I don't have young children anymore, but had my sister's kids f14, m12 and f8, visit for Christmas, and had to limit their technology use. It did mean I had to engage them more, but the pleasure was going to museums with them, reading books playing monopoly and chess and all of us learning to play the penny whistle. Even their mother was amazed at the effort needed to drag them away from their tablets and phones, and has decided to structure their day better so tech use is minimized.

Flip side though is while children of today might not have the depth of knowledge past generations might have, they sure do know about more stuff than my generation did at their age, which for all intent include neighbours through who's windows I could watch telly. They are preparing for a different world to mine, is what I think, but those who invest time in their children so tech doesn't raise them would likely do better in life, though I'd bet that's debatable.

I really do like your approach. Getting them off screens is usually almost like a fight many parents are not willing to start or sustain. And when you do, you almost notice withdrawal symptoms similar to addicted drug users going through detox.

Nowadays in church, teens no longer bring paper bibles to church. Its all in their phones. Meanwhile, even though I have a tablet and an iphone with several translations on it, my big KJV bible must follow me to church.

I recall sometime late last year sitting next to a teen (he should be between 15 - 17 year old) in church and dude had an ear piece on and was navigating between Instagram, TikTok and Facebook all through the service and pretending he was following the sermon.
I wanted to report him to his mum but wifey advised me against it. Weeks later, another woman mentioned it during a departmental meeting that all teens and young adults should bring their paper bibles to church and their parents were to enforce it as what she experienced sitting besides one was exactly what I experienced too.

MockingBird:
➜I look at the generation of my kids and I feel sad for them majorly because unbeknownst to them, I think technology destroyed the fun of being a child for them. A few days ago, a report came out that the Gen Z’s are the least intelligent generation who couldn’t do better than the immediate previous generation. This report shouldn’t shock anyone. Today, fun for kids is all about screens – they literally get lost spending hours without end on tiktok, youtube, Instagram, facebook, snapchat, AI’s and many other social vices.
Back in my days, our best bet at screens was watching Ninja movies or wrestling on black and white TVs through the windows of neighbours. If this was not the case, we were outdoors inventing plays to keep our minds busy with games like War Start, Police and Thief, Monkey Post, Cover bottle Soccer played on smoothly cemented floors, flying kites on the street, riding wheel with clothes hanger, playing skipping ropes, building cars with woods and cartons, shooting rubber bands, hunting lizards with catapults, or if these were not the case, we were playing ‘mama and papa’ play with girls our age and cooking play food with tin tomatoes containers as pots…damn, recalling and writing all these brings smile to my face. What a childhood we had!
Today, the above is not the case as the average 4 to 25 year olds are hooked on screens all-day-long. Take the screens from them and they are completely useless to themselves and the society. I really don’t envy this generation even though I would do all I can within my power to snatch my kids from the technology ruining the childhood of today’s kids.
For this very reason, I will be delaying the age when my kids would have a phone of their own and even when I do get them a phone, it will be a basic phone like an old skool Nokia phone where the most advanced game they can play is snake and the rat while I train their minds and bodies with games like Chess, Scrabble, Badminton, Table Tennis, Swimming and Soccer. What’s your take on this, would you rather be born in the Gen Z era or you are ok with your generation?

Having bad parents and living in bad societies are what can steal the childhood of children in any generation. 🥱🥱

Growing up, we had access to technology as well, but that did not stop us from going outside to have fun and play. We had parents to control the time we devoted to each and that worked out well for many of us and can work even now for the Gen Z era.

MockingBird:
I really do like your approach. Getting them off screens is usually almost like a fight many parents are not willing to start or sustain. And when you do, you almost notice withdrawal symptoms similar to addicted drug users going through detox.

Nowadays in church, teens no longer bring paper bibles to church. Its all in their phones. Meanwhile, even though I have a tablet and an iphone with several translations on it, my big KJV bible must follow me to church.

I recall sometime late last year sitting next to a teen (he should be between 15 - 17 year old) in church and dude had an ear piece on and was navigating between Instagram, TikTok and Facebook all through the service and pretending he was following the sermon.
I wanted to report him to his mum but wifey advised me against it. Weeks later, another woman mentioned it during a departmental meeting that all teens and young adults should bring their paper bibles to church and their parents were to enforce it as what she experienced sitting besides one was exactly what I experienced too.

Their mother said her children would behave like she's killing them if she tried what I did, and was pleased to see they did not die when I did it. I taught them to plan their day the day before and bought them diaries so they plan device use and whatever other activities we'd do. They didn't plan food one day and we all starved till I relented at 5pm after we'd spent the entire day doing my plan of detail cleaning my house.

She got an app on their phones and her's she can switch on or off their internet access. She says she now don't need call them twice for a "yes mummy" because they know no device use for at least an hour. And she's structured their day better so everything has its time. Says its working like a treat now, and she doesn't even have to tell them anymore.

"Teach your child the way it will go and it wouldn't depart from it", kind of applies here. But one must not make that way too narrow, or one would stump the child's growth.