How the internet raised me
I am fully aware that this is a funny question to ask since obviously, the internet did not physically raise me. My parents did. My parents were the ones who raised me, helping me with the first words, first steps, first everything.
However, I could not help to wonder how much the Internet changed me throughout my life and how much technology chipped in when my parents raised me. I am fully aware that this is an odd question to ask but I am all about that so let me try to explain to myself.
In this article, I will be using the words internet and technology interchangeably. I am fully aware that the internet and technology is not the same thing but now it is barely possible to talk about technology without talking about the internet and mess up terminology while we are at it.
Background information
I grew up in a time where technology is on the rise. The first smartphones became commercialized and laptops became a necessity. I remember times where rarely anyone had smartphones and I live in a time where everyone has a smartphone.
I can still remember the time playing in the park with friends and I experienced the times where people would rather play indoors in front of a screen instead of outside. I can recall the times where I still wrote everything with pen & paper and I reside in a world where most documents are passed on digitally.
Just simply talking about my childhood makes me seem so old even though I am barely that old. However, when I compare my childhood and the childhood of current children, I can already see the differences even though I may never have experienced the currents child´s childhood.
Per definition, I am part of gen z since I was born between 1995 and 2010. Accordingly, we are the first generation that does not know life before the digital life, but my parents were a bit controlling when it came to technology so I do still know a ‘pre being stuck on my phone’ time.
Babyhood (0-2)
Honestly, I am surprised that babyhood even is a word but that is beside the point right now.
I must admit that I was born in a time where the simple internet was just on the rise. The internet that does not require forever to start up and the internet that is not annoyingly noisy. Where the television does not have a static background noise and when the phones are not heavy bricks.
In all honesty, even I can’t believe that I am older than some social media platforms since they seemed to have existed since the dawn of time but that just isn’t true when one checks the dates each company was founded.
Frankly, I do not believe my parents used the internet on a regular basis when I was just a baby and as a baby, I don’t believe I used technology in a logical sense of the way. Therefore, I do not believe that the internet had an effect on how I was raised and grew up as a baby.
Childhood (3-6)
This is where it gets tricky for me since memories of this time are lacking or blurred at best. And neither one of my parents remember when they had their first home computer I could access. My father did tell me when he got his first computer but I want to know when we got the first family computer I would use.
During my childhood, I went to kindergarten where computer science was not an available subject. During my time in kindergarten, I also believe that I spent most of my time doing simple arts and crafts projects instead of sitting in front of the screen.
Travelling back through time thanks to the magical device known to us as a photo album, I found out how our first family computer looks like. Honestly, I can only be glad that we do not live in a world where computers seem heavier than furniture where it is placed upon.
Back then my mindset was also not ‘let’s google it’ if I encountered something I did not know but was curious about. When I was in my childhood and encountered something unfamiliar, my first instinct was ‘let’s ask an adult’. If adults did not know, they knew exactly where to look and what to look for.
Nevertheless, the questions I asked as a child were rather simple to answer and not as complex as the ones I ask today (even grownups can’t help me now). When I was a child, my parents could even tell me inaccurate falsehoods and I would still have believed them.
Hence, I believe during my childhood internet did not have such a big impact on me and how I was raised. However, things are about to change as they always do in life, since I started at a rather technologically advanced primary school.
Primary School (7-10)
Primary school, a brand new start for curious children. A place to meet new people and discover life together. Turns out in primary school, it was not all fun and games because we go there for a reason and the reason is to learn. (Technically, primary school was more fun and games in comparison to what comes after but I digress.)
Amongst all the new things, I needed to learn, I especially remember learning how to use the computer when I was in second grade. Just general things like ten-finger typing, how to perform simple Google searches and how to use MS Office (not advance excel shortcuts but simple word editing.)
Of course, I was in school and I must admit that it was not all about learning. As children, we all wanted to be the coolest and know all the best computer tricks and the most interesting digital games. Therefore, I must confess that when we could use the computers, we did not only learn.
Outside of school, I would rarely use the internet or any kind of electronic device for a matter of fact, since my toys and my crafting materials just seemed more fun. Technology back when I was a child just seemed excessively complicated and I just wanted to have fun without all the waiting.
My necessary dose of music came through my trusted pink radio my parents gave me one day. Since I hated the radio especially with all the broadcast and advertisment interruptions, I had a big stack of CDs in my room.
Now looking at those CD players and the CD´s gives me a nostalgic feeling for the good old days where everything was simple and fun. Does this make me old? I am having an existential crisis. Somehow I feel like a grandma telling stories to my grandchildren… Uff. I think I need a moment…
Hence, no internet at home for me when I was a child (that sentence sounds like a literal nightmare if you would say it to me now since lectures are online, Homeworks are digital and entertainment are on-stream. I could not graduate without technology.)
As for my parents became more adept with technology and all its perks, I believe their parenting methods have changed along with the parenting trend. My mother is probably more affected than my father is since mother was a stay at home housewife and father did not really spend time with us during the week (which is most days during a week).
Regular day-to-day internet surfing became quite the common habit for my mother and that is how the parental parenting practices start changing. With social media and blogs, my mother could inform herself about all the different parenting tips from self-proclaimed professional parents and implement the new findings into everyday life.
Some developments were good and some were bad and some were not even from the internet so I cannot say for sure to which extent the internet has raised me in that time span. However, I can say for certain my life has already been impacted by the internet at that time in space.
Preadolescent (11-14)
After childhood comes the pre-teens, where it is always about me and my grumpy mood swings. In all honesty, preadolescents were confusing times where one has lost childhood cuteness and attention but is still treated like a child. When treated a certain way, we tend to act the same way as well.
The preadolescent, one also is about to hit puberty and that is just an embarrassing time. There were so many changes and so many things about yourself that you no longer understood. So forgive me if I have not cared too much about others in that time.
Nevertheless, there were also positive possibilities and exciting life events that opened up as a preadolescent. For instance, I got my first own laptop. Pretty in pink, just how I liked it back then. Funnily, I got a laptop before I got my own phone.
The laptop had nothing special now looking back. It was just a simple pink computer I could surf and do basic tasks with. My homework was neatly (not only organized into different folders) printed and handed in. Teachers loved it when they did not have to read my scrappy 5th-grade handwriting. The pink laptop is just like the laptop, I have now just older with outdated programs.
It was also exciting when I got my first real email address, which my mother and I choose together. I was also so excited when I received my first email from my best friend. That email address my mother and I choose together is still in use today as my main email account along with three other accounts.
Personalising the email homepage was also thrilling with the endless amounts of colourful options one can choose from. The personalisation of the computer and playing fun games just seemed like proud first steps into the digital world.
In school, computer science became a subject I always adored since it was fun and understandable. We learnt all about the advanced functionalities of MS Office and programming HTML. I could even proudly confess that I had the ten-finger typing down to an art form.
Homework became more electronic rather than pen-n-paper. I must confess that the school I attended at that time was also a tad bit ahead of its time (and it totally paid off with the valuable IT skills I have learnt there).
With computer science as the subject, I was acing at that time, my parents couldn’t be prouder especially my father who always wanted me to become the next IT girl with a secure computer science job that could change the technological world.
Since computer science became something I was interested in and am actually good at, made me cocky to a certain extent. My father and his HTML skills could not compare to my skills. It was a good feeling and certainly a feeling I held onto until my adolescents.
A life in computer science was also a life I could imagine since changing the internet, the very thing that changed me, sounded like a nice idea and not to mention the income of a computer scientist. Do not get me started on the glass ceilings and stereotypes I could break as a female computer scientist.
As for my personal life on social media platforms, I will say this, I was never the ‘it girl’. I was never on social media platforms in my preadolescents and I rarely watched YouTube videos. Honestly, I was more of the gamer girl back then and could not care less about my social media presence.
My fellow students had their own smartphones and Facebook accounts unlike me. Honestly, I felt a tad left out by my non-existent knowledge about social media. However, in secondary school, it was not all about who had the newest smartphones and who knew the most popular apps.
I am living proof that one can get out alive without a social media account in secondary school. It is unlikely that I would have gotten out alive today without social media but back when I was in eighth grade, social media presence amongst my friends were not everything.
The digital world was not woven into real life back in my preadolescent. It even seems that real life and digital life were two separate entities, which had their own unique identities and personality. Now, the two identities can´t be told apart from one another.
It was only until the end of my preadolescents where I got my first social media account on Instagram. However, that was years after getting my first phones, my first radio and my first electronic keyboard. One can even say I was a bit late to the party but I don´t think I am any different in comparison to my peers.
As for how much the internet changed me in my preadolescents, I believe that it had quite an impact on me as a person. Not in the sense of the way that I only lived my life for social media and the likes but in a way I became more knowledgeable through the internet.
The internet had access to everything and I was also addicted to it in a sense of the way. I had to continue watching that series to find out what happens next. I had to play that game to get to the next level. I had to find the right credible sources for my homework.
It was addicting even though I barely had a social media presence back then. A place to sate my boredom. A place to sate my curiosity. A place tearing me away from the real place. It was no longer play with toys or read books and ask grownups about impossible questions. It was internet, internet and internet.
To be continued…