Why wouldn't you want your children to be computer savvy?

Question

I took my son to the liberary few days ago, I taught him computer games, I talked to few moms at the liberary, some of them dissaprove on teaching their children technologies, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
Children were taught to read and research on the computer, they hardly read books. So why wouldn't you want your kids to be computer savvy?

Answer 1

I think parents wanting to keep their kids off computers is a case of parents wishing the "old days" was still here, and a case of old dogs not wanting to have to learn new tricks. They are afraid the kids will get ahead of them.

I think it's incredibly irresponsible and naive for those parents to prevent their kids from becoming computer savvy at an early age. If they aren't absolutely comfortable with computers (ie using them almost as an extension of themselves) by high school, then they're going to be left out in the cold as adults.

When they get to college they will be doing 90% of their work on computers, professors won't accept hand-written stuff anymore, it has to be word-processed and spell-checked. No one does poster-board presentations, they are all done by PowerPoint presentation. Professors don't give out handouts anymore, they tell students to go online and get them from the prof's website. Many homework assignments are web-based. My Spanish class homework is done online, with an online weekly quiz. At my university you don't even raise your hand to answer questions anymore, you enter the answer on your electronic "clicker." We even do attendance electronically!

Many parents feel that the kids can learn computers when they actually need them. Unfortunately by that time the kids of these type of parents will be so far behind their tech-savvy peers they won't be able to catch up and often will just decide it's more work than necessary.

Modern society and especially future society is absolutely computer-based. If you want to be more than a Wal-Mart checker you will have to know computers. Future society will be class based... the on-liners and the off-liners. On-liners will run the world and off-liners will serve them lattes.

Answer 2

For me this question is easy.
I would love for children to do well on the computer or even with other things regarding technology. It seems as though now a days being on a computer does not consist of typing or math or reading. It involves more of the arrow buttons and which gun to shot at which monster. Also I would rather my kids be learning to read books to us or others and involved more in social play than all the alone play they can do when it comes to technology. Also children need alot of physical play and pretend play that technology does not offer for them. I am sure there are programs out there that are wonderful but in my home we prefer to play together instead of next to each other.

Answer 3

I wouldn't say children hardly read books. Parents need to have a good balance. Teaching a child to be computer savvy but so is teaching them to enjoy less visually stimulating material and how to use their imagination. Both are important in this day and age but I wouldn't every say being computer savvy is MORE important then reading.

Answer 4

Computers are part of our worlds technology,& I can only think that some parents may be fearful of losing control of what their children do & may do. Having the computer used in a place that isn't private, & can keep the kids from straying into dangerous territory...

Answer 5

Umm...you're generalizing a bit...talking to a few moms at the library won't give you a good cross-section. Properly supervised (there's a lot of scary crap on here), a computer is an excellent tool for kids. My 4.5 yr old loves playing games on kids' websites like pbs.org, etc...

Answer 6

I think the reason a lot of people disapprove of children being computer savvy is the fear that they'll accidentally wander into chat rooms and end up talking to a stranger who lures them into a meeting and kills them.

obviously this is worst case scenario, but i think if you teach them RIGHT that they'll know better. They can still be computer savvy and know that it's bad to enter chat rooms

Answer 7

Depends on the age. Also theres a big difference between being computer saavy and developing math and science skills.

Answer 8

Because my husband doesn't want his kids being on the computer all day because they will forget their religious duties to God and his daughters won't know how to be good mothers and wives when they are older if they are on the computer.