Expectations of our children.

Hello fellow parental geeks,

Whilst reading the recent Guardian article "Kids need a license to tinker" about encouraging children to explore the creative possibilities of technology rather than simply being taught how to use Excel, my mind started wandering about what my 9 month old will come to expect from her technology when she's my age. My mind quickly blew, failing to even comprehend what she would demand from her technology in just 15 years.

We’re a transitional generation, we’ve experienced pre-digital, digital and post-digital. We have an odd romance towards the memories of analogue, hence the popularity of Instagram, but also a respectful awe and excitement towards new technology like RFID and wireless.

Yet already, our expectations on bleeding edge technology are surprising – if things aren’t multi-touch, wifi connected, light and responsive, we’re disappointed. We’re quick to anger when we cannot access an album via Spotify on the flight to Germany because in the in-flight internet is a little shaky, despite the amazing fact that you’re in the air, at 30,000ft, and you can listen to a song which you don’t physically have in your hands.

I’m fascinated by the changes we’re only just starting to perceive, the high expectations placed upon technology and the cultural and social mores around that new technology which my daughter will have in just 15 years time.

She'll look at my 2010 iPhone and exclaim in disgust, unknowingly quoting Back to the Future II, "You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy". She’ll pick up a CD and wonder why it is physical, why I wanted to own it forever, why on earth I paid cash for it, and perhaps even what cash was.

I'd just love to start collecting a series of opinions and musings over our children's future.

As a parent, and if you have a spare 15 minutes (ha!), I'd love to know what you think your children will demand from their technology when they are fifteen, or what they would say if they looked back at our technology and society today in History class. What would they be amazed or appalled at? What expectations would they have on consuming content and playing with technology? Will social media seem distinctly anti-social? Will conversation be dead? Or will life actually not be so very different?

I’m particularly interested in your thoughts as not only a parent, as I know my relatively short stint as a Dad so far has been regularly punctuated with thoughts of ‘What world will she grow up into?’, but also because I know you as a thought leader and innovator when it comes to the application of new technology and new culture around technology.

It isn't for anything commercial, I’ll just be collecting the thoughts on a blog somewhere.

If you‘d be interested in sharing your thoughts for a blog, drop me a line at matthew@thinkplaymake.co

Nanu Nanu.
Matthew Knight / @webponce