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| Kids |
| Tuesday, June 23, 2009 |
I love kids. Kids are cute and innocent. Kids of all ages.
I envy the kid I was over a decade ago.
When I was in 8th or 9th grade I remember going to my Dad's office once a year for some kind of competition that my Dads office used to have for its employees' children. Essay writing I think. I used to wear my nicest dress. We would be left in this nicely furnished conference room, sit in big chairs meant for big people, feel important and try to build comraderie with the other kids. I would get to meet all my Dads friends, as he would proudly introduce his daughter. I would smile and be my shy self, as my Dad showed around the office.
Today it was Kid to Work Day at work. As I entered the building I saw the booth already set up, signing in the kids. I know more than 1500 kids were registered to come and participate in various activities that were set up for the day.
I was signed up for a two hour slot to volunteer for TechKnowledge Quiz. 11Am-1PM. Blended in with lunch, it was only taking 1hr off my work hours. As I walked to the building at the other end of the campus, where the real action was, I saw kids walking with badges around their necks with the schedule, with their parents. The professional serious work place had suddenly taken a different face. The serious employees, were suddenly just regular parents. I just adored watching the kids some shy, some not so shy, going about their schedule. There was a Scavenger Hunt scheduled with the buildings for which the kids were running around.
I walked across the Cafe to see swarms of children and their parents buying stuff. The Cafe had special Kids meals for today. I went to the room where the Quiz was being held. It was like Jeopardy. We have categories, we give answers, they ask the questions. Most of the questions I had to read and get familiarized with myself.
It was a busy 2hrs. Watching who rang the bell, keeping track of answers, judging who gets points, etc etc. But it was fun nevertheless.
Once again I cannot say how amazed I was at just how well versed kids are with computers. We had a category for Computers and I heard middle schoolers and high schoolers give us explanations for ROMs, RAMs, CPUs, talking about motherboards and DSL,bandwidth,GHz, MegaBytes and GigaBytes. And USBs and flash memories.
I was dumbstruck. There were Math and Science and English and Measurements, which were the usual. But computers. Oh my God! When did I come to know of these terms? Not until 11th grade I think. May be I knew OS in eight grade when I went to a Computer Summer Camp. But otherwise, nada! Its possible my sample space is highly biased being composed largely of offsprings of Computer Engineers.
Along the same lines, my PCPal asked me this when I went to bid him adieu last Monday. "Do you how many GigaBytes make a TeraByte?" Well I know now, but I sure didnt know what a byte was in Grade 5!!
Anyhoo, now I can confirm that I have grown old, become a dinosaur, become one from the past generation with my boring stories of " In those days, we never had computers. We wrote in notebooks with a pen, and did not type on this different notebook that you use today." Because dear friends, the next generation has come to rule! |
posted by SK @ 8:19 PM  |
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| 7 Comments: |
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I think its all a very complicated chaos theory type of events. With development, change and overall improvement of lifestyle, todays kids are much more exposed than how you or I were. Like my brother for instance. He had the comfort of a car and AC at age 7. I did not. He had a PC at age 6. I did not. He started driving at age 17. I did not. And I think this phenomenon exists in every country. Developed or developing.
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Yes. Like Munchkin for ex can record programs on the complicated dishnetwork TV at the age of 5 when my older daughter learnt 3 yrs back.
All relative :)
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did u realize only now tat u got old? wat alternate universe did u live in all along?
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Whatever you say grandma.:D :D
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Whatever you say grandma.:D :D
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On any unrelated note. Kids < 4 yrs and Kids > 14 are ok. 5-13 are irritating.
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Adi,
You are right, but I think as such human beings are becoming smarter with generation too.
Rads, Yes you are right. :--)
Kutti,
Adapaavi!!! ippadi leg pullifying.
Lonestar, :--((( :--)
Ram, heheh enna personal experience-a. I find them ok, havent interacted too much with any in a while.
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I think its all a very complicated chaos theory type of events. With development, change and overall improvement of lifestyle, todays kids are much more exposed than how you or I were. Like my brother for instance. He had the comfort of a car and AC at age 7. I did not. He had a PC at age 6. I did not. He started driving at age 17. I did not. And I think this phenomenon exists in every country. Developed or developing.