I fear my son will think I don’t read… or listen to music… or vacuum since that task has been assigned to the robot.
It’s been years since I bought a physical book and I can count the number of physical CD’s I’ve purchased in the last decade. I have neither of these things lying around as conversation starters for him to ask about. That being said, I read on my Kindle every day and spend hours around the house with my iPod and at least one earbud jammed in my skull.
For all he knows though, I’m watching My Little Pony on the tablet or doing “the letter game” since that’s what a tablet is used for in his world. And for physical copies of music, I listen to vinyl with him since he likes to watch the turntable spin around. He probably thinks the evolution of media is from cassette to CD and then on to vinyl. I’m sure he assumes the retro Fisher Price turntable Target sells was just recently invented too.
I’ve wondered how his world will be different as we’ve moved to digital media.
We don’t have cable so he doesn’t know about channels nor does he have any concept of having to wait for his show to start. He chooses the programs he wants to watch on Netflix by pointing to the TV and saying “That one, Please” while we select it with the clicker (we don’t call it clicker). It starts immediately.
He doesn’t know what commercials are and has yet to be programmed to want a particular toy for that reason (See This Great Old Blog Post I Wrote About This). The only thing we watch that isn’t streaming is the “News” at 6:30. “It’s your turn?” He will ask. “Are you going to watch the NEWS?”
Since it’s an over-the-air digital broadcast it gets pixelated when it rains unlike the streaming HD he is used to. He must assume we are so old-fashioned with our fuzzy screens and non-voice-activated clickers.
I’m thinking about buying up some of the cardboard books they have on display at IKEA to show off their bookshelves so at least we can have a lesson on the printing press.
“You can keep the shelves, I’ve got plenty of empty ones at home. How much for the cardboard books?”
Better yet, maybe I’ll buy bookshelf wallpaper.