Hi, my name is Don and I'm addicted to technology
This morning I got up at 5am, like any other day of the week; schlepped down stairs; got my cloths ready; showered and shaved. That’s my routine (less the shaving part as I’m lazy and don’t need to hack at the mug everyday).
As I’m getting out of the shower, I hear the pitter patter of little feet. I can tell that it’s my three-year-old coming down the stairs. Typically, she doesn’t get up until about 6:30 am, with my wife and six-year-old. However, this morning, she was up early rearing to go.
As I opened the door, she was standing there, sort of shocked that the house was still — no tv was on, no noise, no life. Just daddy and his fat behind getting out of the shower. I asked her, “Jordan, what are you doing up so early?” Her reply, “I’m going to plat the ‘puter daddy.”
To you non-three-year-old speakers, the ‘puter is the computer. Yes, she got up early to play on the computer.
I watched her as she woke herself up and walked to the computer desk. She pulled back the heavy leather chair that’s a zillion times heavier than her. She wiggle the mouse, watched the monitor turn on and immediately hit the start button / all programs / Firefox.
Yes, she chooses Firefox over Chrome or IE.
As I stand there, still waking up myself, I’m in amazement at her relatively new found computer skills. She went to Playhouse Disney and was playing a Dora the Explorer game — one where it takes some sort of hand/eye coordination to move a little character around the screen, avoiding stuff falling from a tree — fruits and stuff.
Still, I’m standing there in amazement and am thinking to myself, where the hell does she get the energy or drive to be up this early and playing on the computer.
Then I remember, she’s my kid and that just yesterday evening (at a bday party for my buddy’s kid), I spent about 40 bucks trying to win an iPad out of game called Stackers — a Tetris-like game where there are about 11 or 12 steps to get to the grand prize. You hit a button to stop the stack of blocks that are moving side to side. At each level, you need to stop the group of block on top of each other. Each group has three blocks in it. As you go higher, the group of blocks goes to two then to one. You do this all the way to the top as the game moves quicker and quicker. I got to the top, one away from the grand prize at least six times — only to miss the iPad I’m longing over by one slot.
So, back to my three-year-old and her technology obsession…wonder what she’ll do when I bring home the iPad?
Don Martelli is just a dad, moonlighting as a PR exec, photographer and civilian journalist. He’s an editor for Technorati’s Business, Blogging and Lifestyle channels, a co-founder of Every Other Thursday and is a contributing writer for Shamable and the PR Finish Line. Connect with him at www.donmartelli.com or @bigguyd via Twitter.
