This is so disturbing on so many levels. I grew up when cellphones were something that you had in expensive cars not every kid's backpack and I think we were better off for it. We are raising kids with less independence from tech, schools and even into college where there are groups for everything.

http://www.budandtemple.com/content/adventures-abernathy-brothers-oklahoma-0

Today their parents would be in jail today for child endangerment.

I get annoyed at the teachers and coaches who reference technology things when talking to groups of kids. They assume all kids are watching TV and using the internet and texting - even at a young age. A few weeks ago, one such assumed all the kids (6 & 7) had seen the Harry Potter movie. Now, my son has read part of it, but I'm not letting him watch it (because some of the later movies would probably freak him out - and right now Batman, Loony Toons, Smurfs, and the such are enough).

I find it frustrating myself. He'll be using this stuff soon enough, but right now, he has to learn to rely on himself, even for his entertainment.

>> I grew up when cellphones were something that you had in expensive cars not every kid's backpack and I think we were better off for it.

Damn youngsters showing up on the blog lately. When I was growing up, a cell phone was your Mom (and God forbid your Dad) yelling for you to come home two blocks away.

We have had to institute a "no cell phones on" at our Cub Scouts meetings, where the kids are 7-10 years old, and their phones are all way more modern than mine.

mmm, well, yeah 2000 year old men who trudged to school in the snow uphill both ways, as I did, aside...

Change. It happens in fits and starts, and sometimes we think it's a bad thing. Sometimes it is.

Our children are in a transitional period, just like we were, as everyone is.

1980 Popclips http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PopClips I only got it because we moved to NewMexico and HAD to have cable to see anything at all...
and there was this thing where people sang, and danced on TV. And then very soon there was MTV. "it'll rot your brain, kid."
BoomBoxes, walkmen, and play stations, cars with automatic transmissions! Why would you plow a field with a contraption instead of a horse?

Indoor plumbing! You do that INSIDE THE HOUSE?

Interestingly, humanity really moves on, and while there are things lost, there are also things gained... and we don't know how it will shake out.

One thing is certain, and that is: the skills we have used and enjoyed, the ones that made us strong? They are not the ones that our kids will use.
Spending all day in a library to find info on Odysseus? Not likely, when you have a computer in your pocket that has access to 10 different translated versions of Homer.

So will you compose your own epic poem? Make your own art to go with it?

It's true that transitions aren't smooth, and there are bound to be people who get lost when their GPS fails. They prolly would have gotten lost 30 years ago too.

We ARE going to change, with new technologies that haven't even been thought of yet, and maybe it will be ruinous.

What'll happen when the best companion you ever had is a robot that you are in love with? You think our birthrate is in a crashdive now...

This will bring change, because there is nothing as consistent as that anyway...

so how will we guide that? In 70,000 years, will there be a galactic empire of people who have moved out among the stars but have forgotten how to procreate, who slowly burn out, because they are too bored to go on?

Or will they figure it out, will the tethered child figure out how to deal with things when and if they happen. As humans have always done, coming up with one thing after another for a very, very long time.

Or will they figure it out, will the tethered child figure out how to deal with things when and if they happen. As humans have always done, coming up with one thing after another for a very, very long time. -- SwissArmyD at February 20, 2013 3:48 PM

I won't fully disagree with you. The other side was brought home to me by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (Ret.) in his Bulletproof Your Mind Seminar. This became especially relevant after Sandy Hook.

One of his points that if 90% of kids have cell phones in school and they all call their parents when the shooting starts where are the parents going to go? So now you have 500 or more parent's vehicles clogging up the streets leading to the school. The SWAT and EMT's will have to get through that. Then you any number of parents showing up armed to the teeth. The LEO's will have to watch them as well as the school. Is the attack being done by some deranged teenager or by an Islamic terrorist group?

Just throwing out some thoughts. I won't say your ideas about cultural or technological changes are wrong. I just want to round out your thoughts.

One of his points that if 90% of kids have cell phones in school and they all call their parents when the shooting starts where are the parents going to go?

If there are enough of them calling all at once, the'll swamp the local cell tower, and nothing will go thru.

I'm not a big fan of Sherry Turkle. As someone who started going out on my own just as cell phones were becoming a thing (I didn't have my own until college, but would take my parent's cell phone), this is a bunch of BS.

Growing up in New Jersey and going out into New York City with my friends without my parents was very exciting. Having a cell phone didn't diminish the experience for two reasons:

1. Cell phones are a part of life. Kids have no frame of reference and would never think to themselves: this would be so much better if I didn't have a phone.

2. YOU DON'T TELL YOUR PARENTS YOU'RE GOING!!!! You just go and hope to make it home in time.

I find it amusing that people use computers and the internet to complain about the supposedly deleterious effects of technology.

Ed Driscoll has this today about "effort shock" -- the problems that today's young adults are running into because their parents have not prepared them for life outside of the cradle. You might could argue with Driscoll's conclusion, but there's no doubt that the phenomonen he describes is real.

If I had become a father at the age when most men become fathers, in their early to mid '20s, my child would be pushing 30 now, a leading-edge Millennial. Would that child be a snot-assed spoiled brat, still living in our basement? Or perhaps an independent but disaffected adult, working a string of minimum-wage jobs and trying to keep his head above water? If she didn't fit my definition of "adult", who would be wrong, her or me? Or maybe we both missed the point?

Would I have spoiled and coddled that child? Would I have felt the urge to correct everything that I thought was wrong with my own upbringing as a typical X'er, raised by divorced and mildly dysfunctional parents? And in doing so, would I have created an echo of my own dysfunctions in my child? Are we really stuck on board that pendulum, with no way off?

Too many questions. Time to go look at LOLcats or something.

If there are enough of them calling all at once, the'll swamp the local cell tower, and nothing will go thru. -- I R A Darth Aggie at February 21, 2013 6:54 AM

Which will also block teachers and admin staff from maintaining contact with 911 to let the LEO's know the current status.

You should really take the opportunity to read Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools by John Giduck.

Sandy Hook is just a simple example of a lone nut job going over the edge. What do you think it would be like if 30-40 Islamic terrorists each took over a bunch of schools in a region?

Would there be enough forces to respond? Have the schools and districts planned for it? It is an interesting study.