Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Are You Tech Savvy?

I came downstairs one morning and found my 6-year-old son already on the computer. “Whatcha doin’?” I asked him. “Updating my website,” he responded casually, as if that was a perfectly typical thing for any 6-year-old child to be doing!

It got me thinking about how tech savvy our children are compared to us and how we grew up. I remember how exciting it was when my dad bought our first computer, a Commodore 64. I think I was 8. I learned to type in 8th grade. I got my first email address and first used the Internet for research in college. (Man, I wish the Internet had been available in high school!)

That conversation with my son also got me wondering, how tech savvy are my peers and their children? So I surveyed some MOPS moms and here are some of my findings.

Tech Savvy Moms

90% of the 39 moms that responded say they belong
to a social networking site. Facebook is by far the
most popular with 34 moms belonging. 8 moms use
LinkedIn, 2 use Twitter, and 1 mom is on MySpace.

All of the moms surveyed have at least 1 email account. 82% say they check their email several times a day. 10% check their email at least once daily and 8% check it less than once daily.

67% of moms use websites to share photos or videos. Shutterfly was the most popular with 17 users. Snapfish was second with 10 users. 5 moms use YouTube, 5 use Flickr, 5 use Kodak, and 3 use Walgreens.

28% of the surveyed moms have their own blog or website.

Tech Savvy Kids

Of the 33 moms that responded to this survey, 24 allow their children to use the computer. Just 6 of the children have their own computer.

How much time do your kids spend on the computer each day?
8 said 10 minutes or less
6 said 10-30 minutes
8 said 30-60 minutes
2 said 1 hour or more (That would be MY kid! But just for the record, he doesn't watch TV much.)

What do your kids do on the computer?
19 use Games
8 use Word or Excel
7 visit websites
7 use photo/video/music software
6 do artwork
1 does school research

Recommended Websites for Kids

Barbie.com
Club Penguin
Disney Junior
Funbrain
Google Maps (My son spends HOURS on this site!)
Lego.com
Moshi Monster
Nick Jr.
PBSkids.org
Peep & the Big Wide World
school website
Sprout
Starfall.com
VeggieTales

By the way, my son uses www.shutterfly.com to create his websites. He logs in to my account and uses the "Share" sites to work on 2 of his own sites. It's easy to add photos from my Shutterfly albums and he's added text, maps, weather, links and more. It's easy enough for a Kindergartner!!


Written by Heidi Songer for the Westwood MOPS April 2011 newsletter

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