KIDS AND TECHNOLOGY

I wasn't surprised in the slightest when the new G phone arrived today that Marcel picked it up and instinctively seemed to know better than me where to find functionality without consulting a manual. At nearly 12 he is always attached to his own phone and has all sorts of music blasting out of it and constantly mentions different deals, chat functions and other things I just never use. What surprised me however was that Charlotte, who at 9 has not yet reached phone dependency stage did the same. Charlotte has my dad's old phone which she takes with her on overnights with her dad. If I text anything, she always replies with a simple yes, no or ok. I figured she hadn't got the hang of phones yet. She picked up my G phone and within 2 minutes asked which keyboard I preferred. Emmm - well I had found one that flipped out from behind the screen but that was it. She looked at me like I was stupid and showed me an on-screen touch keyboard she'd found (and I hadn't despite playing with it for 15 minutes before her.) She then commented on how nice my mouse was for correcting typing errors. I smiled and made a mental note to search for my mouse as soon as she handed it back. How do kids know these things? Maybe retiral age should simply be brought forward to 41, and we oldies should hand over business to the next generation now, even before they are issued with their national insurance numbers.