It has been awhile since I have written anything longer than a Facebook status update or a Facebook post on an article I have read. As a mother of three active children ages 4, 6 and thirteen, I have found that to write about the greater technological world and keep my voice in the discussions I had to take a really good long look at who I was.

I have spent the past six months focusing on my children, leaving graduate school and deciding what to write about and “do”. This is challenging when you hold yourself up to traditional societal standards of what an educated mother should do with her life, i.e. give up my career for my children or give up my time with my children for my career. Never one to really follow the norm or shy away from who I am I have decided that, with regards to writing, I should stick with what I know on ALL fronts. Because whenever I think about my education, the future and what is really important, I always come back to the three little faces that are genetically half me and in my care. Why cut out a huge part of who I am and pretend that it has no effect on the way I see the world? My children have added several new lenses to my repertoire on the way I approach technological issues.

I see technological issues for them and through them because they are the next generation. They are the ones who will benefit or be hurt by the discussions we have today. How do we address this? The best place I see to start is to acknowledge that there are not a lot of women, particularly mothers, who are weighing in or providing their perspectives. This is not to say that women have to be moms and that dads don’t count, but if a male perspective can be given with no argument to their positional bias, then I think I am entitled to give one as a mother (being completely upfront with my bias and perspective) using the same logic. I welcome the discourse. There are a few mothers, and women without children, on Facebook that have their own voice on technology that I look to and I admire them, but when I look at the posts and read articles on technology I see that they are overwhelmingly not by women or, specifically, from a mother’s perspective. They do not completely resonate with my daily concerns, and those of other mothers I know regarding technological issues we face with children.



So, where are these mothers? What do they think? Better yet, how are they engaging their kids? I hope to explore these questions further in upcoming posts, but for right now I’d like to focus on where I think they are and why they might not be engaging based on my own past six months of struggles and observations. When I think about my interactions with other mothers it typically revolves around our kids or fantasizing about the idea of free time and how we might relax. Bright wonderful women I know tend to default back to discussions of our children. It is not because we are not educated, most of the women I know are. It is because kids, of all ages, take up a majority of your waking moments and we love them for it.

As I type this I have kids constantly coming up to me to ask random questions or look at my computer screen because I am, for shame, not paying attention to them. Now, I could think that if only I didn’t have the kid factor in my life I could focus more on important technological issues. Except, how can I think about the future without considering the children, my own children, that populate it? Their present and future issues are just as important to consider technologically as any future scenario that a male writer constructs from his perspective looking to the future. For example, while I think sexbot culture is incredibly fascinating and I have written in the past on this topic, right now my kids could care less. Although…I may save that tie-in for a later article. For my kids, other kids and other mothers the issues we are faced with on a daily basis are just as incredibly fascinating, important, need in-depth discussion and most certainly have technological implications. We just deal with them in real time sometimes without the luxury of speculation or research to guide us.

We are concerned with our kids being online. What they do with social networking and how they navigate the world of online etiquette, bullying and nuance. We are worried about what our kids are eating. We want them to read and do outside activities so that they grow up to be well-rounded adults. We are focusing on our careers. We are worried about what technology is best to purchase for them and ourselves: iPod, smart phone, tablet, desktop, laptop, netbook, etc. We are watching our children switch from a school system that once started the semester with paper and pencils to one that now starts with netbooks or iPads. We watch their grades daily online and give them feedback. They take their tests, research, write and submit their homework all online. We have to teach them how to navigate the world of online internet research and publishing documents. Not all of us are equipped with these tools. As parents though, we are expected to be as savvy or more savvy than our kids to guide them through this world we ourselves are becoming acquainted with.

When my 4 yr old can operate my iPad and find features I did not know about it is time to step back and really look at the technological world of our children. Our kids today have everything at the touch of a button. Technology moves fast, but kids move faster. When my son was born, we had no cable and a dial-up internet connection. Now we have DSL, cable channels galore and so many electronic devices we pack a dedicated electronics bag for vacations. Therefore, from the time it took for the internet to go from modem to 4G my son has went from helpless baby to teenager. It is hard to imagine what life will be like when my youngest becomes a teenager. This is a mother’s, a parents, concern.

My point is, we want to know where the mothers are? I know where they are. They sit next to you at practices, games and performances. They interact with you on Facebook sharing pictures, posts and fleeting comments because they have someone else that needs/wants their attention. If they have time to think about technology and the future ramifications at all it needs to be drawn out of them in conversation. They focus on navigating the technology of today, preparing the generation of tomorrow and all without necessarily knowing what they are doing. They are winging it on a daily basis doing the best they can. It is hard to take the time to write down thoughts speculating the future because they are absorbed in the present.

My hope in writing this and future posts is to help other mothers and parents out there who are also having these experiences. This way, we can discuss the issues of today and tomorrow with our children. Because our future is their future and we must come together in our crazy hectic lives. We need to find a way to educate ourselves both to help our children and to make our voices heard to those working on future technology which will affect our children’s (and therefore our) daily lives.