Molten Sun

I consider myself to have grown up with computers. My family got our first computer when I was 8, but I didn’t really start to use it until a couple years later when I convinced my parents to get AOL. My Dad used it for work, but I could finally use it for something I wanted to do: Instant Message. When I consider that I really didn’t really use a computer regularly and make an email account until I was 12, it becomes apparent how much of my youth was lacking computers and the Internet.

I’ve been thinking lately about what it would be like to start from birth with these technologies available. How would it alter one’s view of the world?

I already depend on computers and the Internet for pretty much everything. Between wifi, my laptop, and my phone I am always connected and can have any question answered at any time. However, I missed out on this for almost the first half of my life. This gap greats a learning curve. Older adults often have difficulties understanding the concepts and logic of using a computer. Do I have similar deficiencies because I didn’t start from birth?

While all of these questions were swirling in my head, I came across this video.

It boggles my mind that a child that young could be so competent using the iPad. Admittedly she apparently has experience using an iPhone, but a 2.5 year old cognitively barely has any grasp on language and only has poorly defined concepts. At this age we are extremely limited in our mental abilities and don’t really even realize we can influence humans through communication, let alone computers. Obviously the logic of computer interaction has somehow been absorbed into her just as language and physical limitations of the world are. This is clearly something I missed out on with my late introduction to computers. It’s a first language for her and a second language for me. I’m sure the touch screen of the iPad would come much more easily to a child than a mouse and keyboard, but she definitely has an early start to using computers.

Aside from an early introduction to computers, I am also curious how the Internet shapes the lives and social interactions of slightly older children. Do 7 or 8 year olds have email? Do they ever instant message? What about facebook accounts? I’m sure these answers are obvious to parents, but as a college student I’m a bit cut off from that age group. I know my nephews had a cell phone to share when they were around 7 and 10. If they had cell phones why not Internet lives to match? I’ll have to ask next time I see them.

I’m a terrible user of social media. Although I find the concept interesting, I rarely update my accounts. I guess I’m assuming that the links I find are from “standard” blogs and websites, so everyone else has already seen them too. Aside from that limitation, I just realized another issue while signing up for Daily Booth. There are so many social sites out there now. How can I post to all of them? Should I always post to all of them? What content goes on which sites?

If I want to post a picture to the Internet, I can post it to Daily Booth, flickr, twitpic, or facebook. The options for images are still slightly limited. However, if I want to post a textual message instead, then my options are almost endless: tons of blogging services (Blogger, tumblr, Posterous, WordPress), more socially oriented options (facebook & myspace), and more limited options (twitter) just to name a few.

Some of these choices are obvious. Facebook, at least for me, is less professional and more friend oriented. Flickr is better suited for galleries and groups of photos as opposed to single images. If I have a lot to say I might use this blog, but otherwise twitter is quicker and easier.

As a potential social Internet user, I am now getting caught up in the overload of service options. It’s no longer just the intimidation of putting my ideas out there or writers block of coming up with interesting content, I may actually be limited by the choice of which funnels to pour my content into. APIs offer some help with this dilemma since we can now repost our message across many of these services just by clicking a few checkboxes. On the other hand, I personally get peeved when I see identical content replicated across sites in what I sometimes feel is a waste of my time and “stream” space.

Time will tell and a solution will probably sort itself  out in the next few years. I guess in the mean time, I’ll just feel guilty for underusing some services and misusing others.