This morning’s Metro carried an interview by the excellent James Day and Randi Zuckerberg. According to RZ managing your digital identity and your relationship with technology is as relevant for a two year old as it is for a 102 year old and everything in between.
As a new dad, this idea pulled me in. Should I add managing my son Charlie’s digital identity to the long list of big parental responsibilities, somewhere between ‘picking a school’ and ‘table manners’?
On the surface it sounds, if not insane, then at least exaggerated. But consider this: I set an email address up for him last week so I could – Google Chrome ad style – send him messages through his young life to when he reaches sixteen.
I have already inadvertently started his relationship with email, a cruel mistress by anyone’s standards. Is this seemingly harmless exercise the first small step towards a lifetime trapped in technology’s all consuming clutches?
Bluntly, no. In fact, email will probably be a relic by the time he grows old enough to use it. But it’s still a interesting thought. As parents we must think more deeply about the relationship between our children and technology to keep it healthy.
Hatfield Spirit 