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A BOY AND HIS TOYS
Don Tapscott on boys and their toys.

Text: DON TAPSCOTT

YOU KNOW IT’S TIME FOR TECHNO DETOX WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM AND DETOUR TO CHECK YOUR E-MAIL.

I don’t do this myself, of course. I don’t need to, now that I can tuck my RIM Blackberry under my pillow. This great little gadget – so addictive it should be renamed the Crackberry – offers 24-hour wireless e-mail access. Absolute godsend – although my wife wonders about me when my side of the bed starts vibrating.

My briefcase is full of technologies that could be viewed as gimmicky but are integral to my day-to-day activities. No matter where I am, I can check the stock market, e-mail my kids, pay a bill, find the best place to buy something on sale or generate a map to a street address. My cellphone plugs into a socket on my car’s dashboard. I can call anyone in my phone book just by saying their name. The car radio shuts off if my phone rings.

YOU MAY THINK I’M TECHNO-OBSESSED. I THINK I’M JUST AN EARLY ADOPTER. MY COOL NEW GADGETS TODAY WILL BE COMMON AND MUNDANE TOMORROW.

Admittedly, I do have a love-hate relationship with all the new toys. On the one hand, my business couldn’t function nearly so effectively without them. But I worry as my late friend, MIT professor and author Michael Dertouzos, said that we may be "headed toward greater complexity, increased frustration and a human burden that will grow in proportion to the gadgets and programs that surround us."

But I have faith that we can cope. History is on my side. When the telephone was invented, many questioned what purpose it would serve. Some thought it was an agent of the Devil and promoted moral turpitude, since it would allow men to whisper sweet nothings into women’s ears from afar. Others found it unspeakably rude that a machine could interrupt parlour conversation. Few pundits foresaw how indispensable a tool it would become. The omnipresent cellphone was similarly underestimated.

Our attitude toward technology depends largely on whether we grew up with it. Today’s youth are so bathed in bits and bytes that for them it’s all part of the natural landscape, no more intimidating than a telephone or the hot water tap.

I was in a restaurant recently. Three older teenagers were perched together at the bar, having a great time talking on their cellphones and pausing every so often to tell each other what someone on the other end had said. Most adults would think this bizarre. Most kids think it’s normal.

Kids don’t "see" the technology at all. They see the people, information, games, applications, services and friends at the other end. As MIT’s Dr. Idit Harel observes: "For the kids, it’s like using a pencil. Parents don’t talk about pencils, they talk about writing. And kids don’t talk about technology – they talk about playing, building a Website, writing a friend about the rain forest."

Kids are still doing homework, hanging out with friends, playing soccer or taking piano lessons. Research shows that television viewing is losing out to the Net. Ask kids to choose between cable TV and high-speed Net access and the Net will win.

Believe me, our kids laugh at adult complaints of techno-overload. They can juggle a dozen simultaneous demands on their attention. When they surf the Web, they effortlessly hyperlink from one idea to the next. And while doing this, they can talk on the phone, carry on conversations in three chat rooms, send instant messages and listen to music.

Kids easily assimilate technology because they were born with it. Adults must accommodate – a different and more difficult learning process. With assimilation, kids view digital technology as being no more stressful than the toaster.

There are things adults can do to cope. If the technology intimidates them, they should ask their kids or grandkids to help. I’m not being glib; some savvy school boards have hired their students to teach the teachers how computers work.

Adults must also take the initiative to regulate their lives and decide when they are not accessible. Just because they can take their cellphone everywhere doesn’t mean they should or that they must answer every call. And just because the office e-mails a document for review while they’re on vacation doesn’t mean they should agree to log on.

Self-discipline helps. I love having always-on broadband access to the Net at home. But I soon developed the habit of breezing right past my wife and kids when I got home to go to the computer and check for new messages. I don’t do that any more. There are specific times that I allow myself to work at home. If I don’t aggressively control the technology, it will grow to control me. The choice is mine.