Is anyone else really really happy that Facebook and blogs weren't around when we were teenagers? I know that a blog is by definition about self-indulgent navel gazing and grandstanding, but had they been around in my late teens/early 20s, it would have been even worse than it is now. I also shudder to think what sort of Facebook updates 15-year old me would have posted. I imagine they would have probably fluctuated between the ridiculous and pretentious to the ridiculous and weird. Cyberspace is a better place for not having a record of my teenage antics.
That makes me think about what a different world Amotai will grow up in, thanks to the computer revolution. We wrote actual letters, he'll write emails. I had a pen pal in Dunedin, he might have a Facebook friend in Guam whose posts he "likes". He might never really learn to perfect handwriting. Plenty of people my age have shocking handwriting, and we didn't grow up typing. When he plays phones, there is no reason why he'll say "ring ring" = he might instead sing the Nokia ring tone. I used to get mad at Mum for showing my friends photos of me as a baby. Amotai might instead demand that we take down this blog filled with his baby pics. We will have to respect his wishes, so may end up deleting much of what we've written this last year. Or maybe he won't care as all of his friends' baby pics will be online as well, and at least we haven't posted any of him in the bath.
I just hope that by the time he's a teenager, internet-etiquette will have evolved enough to mitigate agaisnt the problems teenagers are facing now when using it. If not, and if he's going to have an internet footprint, I just hope his teenage nicknames will be better than mine were, if they will be able to be Googled by future employers. Or, maybe by then, we won't care quite so much.
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