Blog #3 - Tapscott Concluding Discussion (I WARN YOU, THIS IS EXTREMELY LONG!)

My focus on this blog post is going to be around a topic I'm fairly sensitive to: The family. I could easily write about activism which is another I enjoy, but family is something I have to write about so I can somehow bring my parent's stories into light.

I found the segment about Parent Helicopters fascinating, mainly because how true they are! As a highschooler I was constantly humiliated by my parents' constant policing. For my mom, she was upfront and blunt about me getting home late (late was apparently 10pm on a prom night, in hindsight, I WAS a sophomore dating a senior that my mom didn't trust, and she was right). My dad was extremely passive-aggressive, sometimes more scary than my mom. It is true what Tapscott evaluated, that parents do this because they're protective of their children in relation to the horrifyingly rising crime rates. I knew they just wanted the best for me, but in the end it became suffocating. I spent a lot of time online, just to find peace and solitary entertainment from my parents. It was to a point my father set an "internet curfew". The internet would turn off automatically at 1 am. Eventually he turned it off when I reached 17 years old. He didn't do so out of fear of the internet or anything, just so I can actually sleep at night, haha. I truly bonded with my family when I left for college, and ended up being miles away from them. It was...amazing. I did find freedom and found myself more productive in school, earning high grades, finding time for my own hobbies. I also found myself appreciating more of my parents. I made sure to call them once in a while, finding relief in being able to do so with technology. When I did go home, I didn't have the luxury in spending time with them, since they worked full-time, but when I did, we all kinda sat together with our computers or tablets and the tv on. But even with all this noise...we really still felt at home.

There are a few things that I've observed about my own family. We're not technophobes. Not at all. Not even in the slightest. That's what I want to talk about. My parents never gave me the sex talk, never gave me a talk about strangers online, or anything of that sort. The only talk they seriously gave me was about education and going to college and graduating, finding a good job. Why didn't they talk to me about all that other stuff? I never asked but I felt they trusted my sister and I at such a young age with the internet. Only recently when I told my mom about some online friends I met that were giving me gifts, was my mom concerned with my activities online. She was baffled at my willingness to give away my address for them to send me gifts. I reassured her, that it will be okay. And it was, it really was.

My entire family is not technophobes, not even the grandparents. My grandpa back in the days enjoyed tinkering with computers, even at 40 or 50 years old. My uncle and father both dealt with computers and my household had at least 5 or 6 computers running at the same time. My sister and I had individual computers, one in the "computer room" for my sister and I to play games on, my dad had one, my uncle had one, and I believed there was even one upstairs in the attic where my uncle slept. Our family had 9 people living under one roof in a three bedroom house, 1 story with an attic. 7 adults, 2 children. Eventually we dispersed but the number of computers in my household remains the same. Except this time it was laptops. We have 3 laptops, and at least 3 desktops in the house, and 3 tablets and 4 smartphones.

The fact we have this much technology is something my mom revels in. She's not even the one competent in computers. She loves it so much because she can talk to her family in Taiwan. She has no one in the United States. So being able to call them, Skype with them, and use the new app called Line to freely contact them with no payment. She understands technology better than those technophobic baby boomers in America. English isn't even her second language, it's her third. Is it America's obsession with our Westernization and traditional roots what's holding the baby boomers back from truly uncovering the extraordinary usability of technology? I believe my parents found themselves enamored with technology because it's something universal. A universal language, and they didn't need to learn fluent English to understand its importance and capabilities. My dad and uncle picks up fast in technology. They don't moan or groan about how absurd this is or how useless and harmful to children. They see us as intelligent and fast. I believe my father knows more about computer than me, and I'm the millennial, the one born into technology.

Oh, and I have to mention that my dad bought the NES without my sister and I even knowing what it was. He also bought a Playstation. We definitely had no knowledge of it. He played it, and we did too. My uncle frequently played Tomb Raider (the first one) and we would crowd around him and watch him play it avidly. He also played the Playstation a lot. I didn't ask for the Gameboy color. The only time I began asking for these high-tech gaming systems was when the GameCube came out. My parents really wanted to get the Wii and encouraged us to get Guitar Hero. They were the ones who asked us if we wanted Rock Band (they looked excited about it at Fry's when we saw it on display). Even recently, just 2 days ago, my mom called me about if I wanted a new camera, a nice one with wi-fi, but we both didn't understand why it needed wi-fi haha.

If my parents, strict and definitely loomed behind me every step of my life until college, understands technology, then I shake my head at technophobe baby boomers. They simply don't want to learn, don't want to accept the age we're in. The only difference I can see is that my parents came to America with hope in their hearts and stars in their eyes. My mom said tears were in her eyes when she ate her first hamburger at Burger King (the Whopper). My dad playing video games with a large smile on his face. My parents yelling at me to get off the internet when someone was calling. My uncle showing me for the first time, video chatting across the world to Taiwan. My dad getting a ping-pong table and how he and my uncle would sometimes play until they sweated. Family is important to me, and their stories bring pride to be a first-generation child. I relied on technology to get where I'm at, and so did my parents.

Tapscott, he's right in many ways, but I can't truly connect with all his statements. Simply because I'm a lucky millennial who grew up with parents that understood technology and foresaw the dangers of increased tuition, so invested in GET to pay for 4 years of college without the cost of inflation. They're smart folks, and I love them. I only hope baby boomers will understand stories like this. Immigrants and first-generation children also make up this technological world. It's not only limited to the Western world and their obsession with tradition. It's time to move on. And the world is waiting for us.