This is Technology Bytes, episode 125, for July 27th, 2025. Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go. So this week, I was thinking about kids and technology, and depending on what age you are, kids can mean a lot of different things. But this weekend, we have our grandchildren staying with us, and they are 8 and 3, and soon to be 9 and 4. And so technology has been something that has been available to them their entire lives. They are growing up in a world where their parents share their growing up experiences, and even as grandparents, with the world at large. Not so much everyone, but a circle of friends often controlled by social media. And so they are exposed very early on and continuously to technology. And so it’s kind of interesting.
There’s always a discussion, right, about what’s the amount of technology that a child should be exposed to, especially young children. How often do we use technology to babysit?
And I think that as grandparents and trying to be 60 and dealing with a rambunctious 4-year-old who is bigger than his size and age, or let’s see, he’s big for his age, I guess is the best way to say it. And sometimes it wears you out, and having technology take them for a moment seems like a good idea. And we really struggle internally with ourselves to say, let’s not do that.
Let’s make sure we’re interacting with them. And even if that includes technology, we’re still okay with that if we’re doing it with them. But just to have them sit by themselves and do whatever, if it’s watching video or whatever things they want to do with technology. But the thing is, there’s so much to learn in the world.
There’s so much that you can be exposed to. And technology allows us to give our children a vast amount of information to expand their knowledge, to make them well-rounded individuals. Also, as Christian parents and grandparents, to hone their ability to see the truth in what the world exposes them to. To be able to recognize where their loyalties need to lie and where their truth is and what’s the center of that. And technology doesn’t necessarily help with that, but technology can definitely hurt that if we’re not grounding our kids in some sort of truth that belongs to the family because of what we believe. And then with technology and the use of it, many times I will see people say, well, I’m not exposing my kids to any technology. They’re not allowed to do this or that.
Sometimes I think that can even be problematic because when they get to the age of education, even if they’re homeschooled, if you’re not exposing a kid to technology, I think you’re holding them back. And it’s not so much that they have to use it, but the world uses it.
And if they don’t understand how it works, if they don’t understand how to control it, if they don’t understand how to be their own best disciplinarian when it comes to technology, and if we don’t drive that into them, then when they become young adults, we will not see them. They will disappear into the technological ether, I guess.
So there’s a lot of work that has to be done with technology.
I think about people that create it, the very smart, capable people who have made these tools that all of a sudden they’re getting blamed for what happens in society, for the fact that this would not be happening if it weren’t for artificial intelligence, if it weren’t for Apple, if it weren’t for Google, if it weren’t for Amazon, if it weren’t, you know, you just have them line up and people want to complain about that. But to me, I’m a technology nut.
My kids were exposed to technology very early.
My daughter got a computer for her sixth birthday, I think.
And I bought the first iPhone, even though my kids had cell phones maybe before that.
But we use technology to help our kids understand the world and the fact that it is what they were going to be exposed to.
I’m hoping we’re doing a similar thing for our grandchildren, and I think it’s proper to do that.
And it’s hard to know.
Everyone’s going to have their own rules.
How do you use it?
When do you use it?
How much do you use it? But what we all need to understand is to have the grace to let people parent their kids.
But that’s where I think the reality lies.
It’s not technology that has ruined the world.
It’s, yeah, I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but it’s the lack of family values, that core of family that people need to be able to come back to, the fact that you can go home and feel safe, the fact that you have a grounding influence in who your parents are. That is what is important.
And in that, technology will definitely play a role.
So I think, I don’t know if I’ve done it right.
I don’t know if I’ve done it perfectly.
In fact, I know I haven’t.
But I really think that technology needs to be used.
And that’s not just because I’m a technology nut.
I think people need to know how to use it properly.
It needs to be controlled and not be controlling.
It needs to be a tool and not a crutch. It needs to be, I’m not sure if I can come up with another analogy.
But the fact is, it’s a tough world.
The exposure that happens because of technology, the learning that happens because of technology, the availability of great information, the availability of maybe a little bit scary information, the fact that it makes the world so small and yet so grand at the same time is quite amazing. And I think that we need to hold on to that and use it properly and figure that out for ourselves and our family and what that looks like.
And it is going to be a challenge because technology is going to continue to amaze.
And I look forward to what is discovered.
But I also want to make sure that in its use, in its exploration, however you want to look at it, that we are also not using it to separate, but using it to draw people together, that we use it to continue to form relationships, maybe. But at the core, technology does not replace the family.
And I think that is where things need to remain.
This is a weird podcast.
I’m not sure I made my points all that well, but it is where I’m at at the moment.
I have my grandkids.
It makes me think about it quite a bit.
I’m sure other parents, grandparents, combination of those caretakers are thinking similar things and trying to figure it out for themselves. And I hope that there is enough conversations and grace and mercy available in ourselves to have those conversations without fear, without anger, and without ulterior motivation. Well, that’s all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.com.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together, taking another bite of technology.
