Social Media Family?

As my daughters grow older, I have begun to think a lot about our world and how it has embraced social media and what that means for my girls and our family.

I have embraced the social media trend, I am on facebook, twitter, linked In and have a You Tube Channel. I am very active on all these mediums and have realized the benefits one has in being a part of this social revolution. But what does this mean for my kids? Ainsley is almost four and has yet to play a video game or truly interact in an electronic medium. We have watched You Tube videos together but that is the extent of her computer exposure.

I was invited to attend a conference session yesterday on Social Media and the Family. It really got me thinking about how important technology is to our society and the benefits of being plugged in. It changed my thinking from how long can I keep the electronic world from my children to the thought that perhaps I am doing them a disservice from not exposing them to this world at an early age so that they can develop the necessary skills to thrive in our highly technology based world.

So how does one introduce their children to computers? Well, on twitter (fitting) Maria Pilar-Clark from @mariapilarclark who writes for Chicago Parent tweeted this morning that VTech was coming out with a tablet for kids. How timely is this? So I went on their website and am pretty excited about this product. The article about it is below

http://http://www.chicagoparent.com/community/cosmotot/2011/february/vtech-debuts-innopad-tablet-for-kids

I am hoping this is available in time for Ainsley's birthday next month. I think that as I have fully embraced computers and social media, that it is time to let this filter down to my eldest and see where that leads us.

I will still not be registering a domain in their name (yes, apparently some parents do this at their child's birth) nor will I be opening a facebook or twitter account for them. I think that when they are old enough to want to do this, then we will have the conversation about internet etiquette and hopefully they will want to be my friend.