30 years ago there was no mainstream internet, no apps and a VCR was a revolutionary invention.
You don’t need me to tell you how different the world has become since then, in just one generation the way our species operates has been entirely upgraded to digital. This means parents today are raising their children in a completely different environment to how they were raised themselves.
This comes with its benefits, parents today needn’t worry about ‘are we there yet’ plaguing long journeys, the kids are too busy on their iPads watching last night’s X-factor on long drives. In fact, research by Makersacademy.com has just found that millions of children are able to operate a TV remote control before they can recite the alphabet. There is no doubt technology will play a huge role in the future and everyone, children and adults need to keep up or face being left behind.
When it comes to keeping up, kids seem to be doing a better job than the adults. In fact, one in 10 parents admit their little ones have shown them how to use a smartphone. Now my theory here is that the reason for this is that when we are young we get a good understanding of technology and are actually taught how to use it but then the technology upgrades so quickly that our education fast becomes outdated.
I’m 25 and I already feel like Apple is personally victimising me with updates that each time mean I know less and less about how to use my phone. Do we really have time to keep adjusting to new ways of doing things every time a tech giant decides they need a new edge over a competitor?
Unfortunately, the issues with being left behind have consequences bigger than sending bad Snapchats or not being able to delete images stored in The Cloud.
The research also found that more than half of parents admit they struggle to support their kids with their homework, with three-quarters resorting to using the internet. It seems that as technology place an ever bigger role in kids’ lives and education turning to mum and dad for help is becoming a more irrelevant solution to tricky homework.
Outside of their parental role technology is also an issue when it comes to job prospects. The research found that two-thirds of people are worried they will become increasingly unemployable because of the increasingly swift advances in technology.
The truth is, experience used to make you credible in a role but nowadays understanding new technology and being able to predict its development and ways to apply it can make you even more valuable. One area we are all seeing becoming more important is coding. Three in five people have no idea how to use computer code – and over a third don’t even know what coding is. This is worrying seen as it is becoming one of the main skills employers look for on a CV.
Kids these days are being taught it in schools and companies value it so much they are paying for their employees to take a course in it.
It seems that whether we have time for it or not we all are going to have to make more of an effort to learn how to use new technology. The kids today are going to grow up and when they do they are going to be able to do our jobs better simply because of technology.
They will be able to replace entire companies because they will become outdated and unable to compete. I myself am even considering taking a cause to me it’s not just about keeping up, technology can do some remarkable thing and if I can master it I can’t help but think that I might be able to live my life more efficiently.
