Children of the revolution: November 24, 1997 issue of New Thinking

November 24, 1997 New Thinking:
Children of the revolution

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November 24, 1997

Children of the revolution

By Gerry McGovern

It used to be that children were to be seen and not heard. Nobody really took children seriously. In fact, it was hard to find anyone under 30 in a position of power.

On the Internet, children and teenagers are being ‘heard’ and not seen. Children and teenagers have a potential power and influence today that they could never have had in an Industrial Age society.

The Internet and the digital age is turning an awful lot on its head. We have barely touched its potential. We have hardly felt the breath of its power.

This is not a good time to be set in your ways. This is not a good time to be old, and to have never used a computer, and to be afraid of change.

Children, by their very nature, are in a learning mode. On the Internet, children are in their element. Adults, who have been used to relying on gathered knowledge and experience, find it difficult to cope within an environment that is breaking in a very severe way from the past.

There are many parents who would never dream of asking their children to fix the car for them. However, when the computer goes down, it is to their children they often turn.

There is a positive and a negative to this sort of situation. It can deepen the parent-child relationship. Unfortunately, many families today have very limited interaction. Both parents often work. Children rarely can learn practical things from watching their parents because their parents are simply not there.

So-called ‘quality time’ can often involve an overdose of sincerity and emotion; like feeding children too many sweets. So, even if the role of ‘teacher-pupil’ is reversed where a child is showing their parent how to use a computer, at least the parent and child are learning together.

However, children are children. Physically, they have not matured. Emotionally, they have not matured. Socially, they have not matured. Yes, children have a great capacity to learn. They have less capacity to put that learning in context.

Having two children myself, I have found that it actually upsets them to give them too much responsibility. Children, although they would not admit it, need certainty, need rules. It gives them a sense of security.

The next ten years will be a time of great challenge. I think that the challenge to find out where the new knowledge and expertise resides is a very interesting one. I think that there are things that young people can definitely teach adults in this new age. It will be hard for adults to acknowledge this, but they must, because otherwise they will lose even more of their authority and influence.

However, let us keep some perspective. Children and young people have inquisitive and exploratory minds. While they should be given the freedom to explore, we should be wary about allowing them to define.

Life will always be the greatest teacher. Picking up how to use a computer is one thing but attaining judgment and wisdom takes time. If we can embrace the digital age in an enlightened way, we can turn the family into a positive, learning unit. I think that would be a great thing to do.

Gerry McGovern

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Children, although they would not admit it, need certainty, need rules. It gives them a sense of security.