The rate at which technology is expanding is insane. No sooner do I learn how to use something, it changes. VCRs gave way to DVD players which gave way to Blu-ray players which will give way to God knows what next. Do yourself a favor and look back at the computers you used as a kid and then take a look down at the iPad or laptop or all-in-one or smartphone that you’re reading this post on. Did you ever think for one second that what you’re reading this on right now would be the norm? I know that I didn’t. But technology isn’t going to slow down and we’re going to have to adapt with it. OK, Nick, why are you talking about the ever-evolving nature of technology on your dad blog? Good question. Let’s find out.

I was perusing Facebook the other day (read, checking every five minutes) and came upon that post on the right. One of my fellow dads had posted it. And as I’m reading it, I think about what happens at my house most nights and on the weekends. Sophia will snatch up the iPad or grab my phone or Sarah’s phone, unlock it and immediately find her favorite apps. It doesn’t matter if it’s Peekaboo Barn or some app with Monkeys and puzzles and fruit whose name escapes me.

The fact of the matter is, she knows exactly how to use it. She knows how to open up Netflix, find the kids section and start playing Barney or Tinkerbell, or whatever it is she wants to watch at the moment. She turns the volume up, ALL THE WAY UP, and just sits and enjoys what she’s watching. Let’s all remember that she is two. TWO. T.W.O. 2.

That’s awesome. I mean, I want my daughters to know how to use technology in all of its joys and if it helps them flourish, all the better. But I can’t help but think back to my days as a little tike, or as one of my cousin’s still calls me, a wee lad, and think about what I was doing when I was two or three. That picture up there sums it up perfectly. I was eating dirt, or making mud, or eating mud, and throwing mud, or attempting to fall out of a small tree. It doesn’t really matter exactly what I was doing, all that matters is that if someone had plopped an iPad down in front of me, chances are I would’ve put it in some mud. Chances of me figuring out how to use it right? HA! Not a chance, my friends, not a chance.

A fellow dad, and co-worker, said over lunch last week that kids with technology is like speaking in your native language. And we, as the older generation will know how to “speak” the technology language but it will always be a second language to us and we’ll never be fluent in it. I completely agree. I wish it were wrong, but it honestly seems like the truth here.

What about you other parents? Do you feel like I do or do you think you would’ve been able to master technology when you were a tiny tot? And, what technologies are your kids able to use now that totally blows you away? Comment here, let me know on the Papa Brownie Facebook page, or shoot me a tweet on the Twitters.