I spent some time showing Bradley some blogs and Twitter and Facebook yesterday afternoon.
It started when I commented aloud about a post by My Little Drummer Boys showing photos of drought in Australia. I was telling Lance about it, and Bradley was standing next to me at the time said “In Australia? You get around!”
LOL, then i showed him photos on other bloggers I follow from across the world, and he was fascinated. He’s played games on the internet and knows you can get info but I’m not sure he realised the social aspect before now. Oh I lie, he must know, because he knows all the friends that we meet up with that I’ve met via the internet… but I think the Australia thing caught his imagination.
Then we moved onto Facebook, and wrote wall posts to Granny and his friends Thomas and Sonja who moved to New Zealand. Thankfully, they both replied by this morning, and he had a BIG smile on his face when he read the replies.
Then we went onto Twitter, and I posted a photo of him saying hello – by taking a photo on my phone and sending it, and he was thrilled to get the immediate responses from across the country (I explained who each person was, and where they lived as they replied) and the virtual cupcakes from Angel 🙂
And then I started thinking… his experience of communication is so very different to all generations before him. It’s just so much faster. I remember sitting with my mom learning how to write letters to my Granny who at the time was living in Zimbabwe. We used to wait weeks for a reply. And OMW the pain of a letter! Can you remember how long-winded they had to be because you hardly ever sent them?! What agony!
I mean it was fun getting letters back… but it’s so much better to get a reply instantly or a few hours later!
My nieces in New Zealand still send snail mail letters to my MIL, who can barely use her cell, let alone a PC… and I take my hat off to them, I really do!
I wonder whether the schools have started changing the syllabus yet, and incorporated the best way to communicate online… and not just via snail mail… they really should… our kids will hardly use the old methods in their lifetimes.
Anyway, something to ponder over… I can see this post getting very long if I don’t cut the ramble here.
Oh my goodness .. another blogger in the making !!
If I’m not mistaken- they’re still teaching letter writing on the South African syllabus… I think it’ll be a long while before they update themselves.
Its a pity he couldn’t taste the cupcakes!
You’re right – everything is changing in the way we communicate and the way our kids will communicate. I think letter writing will eventually be part of the history syllabus? 😉
Interesting…I should introduce Megan to it all. I know she understands about my blog and that I post pictures for our family there for them to see. She’s always declaring “Don’t put that on the blog!” when she does something funny of if I take her picture.
She kinda gets it. I should actually show her wot I’m doing.
My cousin is sending me a post-card from Spain. I promised to reply by writing a letter. (By the way – this arrangement was made via Facebook)
I still need to write the letter 😉
Well done Bradley!
(Have I mentioned that introducing Logan to youtube was a bad idea – he is only turning four in December)
Hehehe… i have been having this same sort of interaction. With my dad 😉
He is fascinated by the blogging culture and made me take him on the back-end and show him how statcounter works etc.
The internet is really like magic for those who aren’t used to it.
thats very cool.
my boys have facebook pages blocked for just cousins and family friends. its great way to keep in touch with each other’s photos.