Why I'm Encouraging My Kids To Tinker and Destroy Every Piece of Tech in My House

by Syed Amierul Asyraf


Amierul's note: Ladies, I hope the title doesn't disqualify myself to be the one for any (all?) of you.

---

As long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the world of technology. I was only five years old when my father bought us our first desktop computer. Although we used the computer mostly to play obscure computer game titles such as Hocus Pocus and Megarace, even at a young age I know that computers are the beginning of a paradigm shift in terms of how my family members deal and utilise technology at our disposal.

Fast forward twenty years, and although I am not a programmer or an engineer I still keep abreast with developments in the tech industry. Whether it's a new iPhone or other consumer hardware, or the rise of startups that base themselves on sharing economy, tech news are almost always on my top priority when it comes to my daily read.

While I dabbled in Malaysia's startup ecosystem for a while and attended a few workshops, accelerators and hackathons, my social media feeds are still full with friends and acquaintances sharing their expertise and promoting their ideas and opinions on tech-related news. Bleeding edge technology, it seems, has become an indivisible part of my being. As much as I want to keep myself away from this sometimes, I concede that I am a card-carrying member of the cult of tech. This is all thanks to the wonders of the first desktop I got twenty years ago. However, allow me to air my concern with how technology is introduced to the current generation of children.

When introduced and utilised well, technology, much like education for previous generations can become a great socioeconomic equaliser. If not for my first desktop computer I would not have been able to learn how to type a Word document, keep track on my daily expenses with Microsoft Excel and find out which keywords to use when looking for the best porn as early as I did. While one can debate the virtues of each of the examples I gave just now, we can at least all agree that a headstart can be very important in making sure that one's learning curve isn't too dangerously steep.

This makes me wonder sometimes if we are providing the current generation of children the same kind of exposure when it comes to technology. When we look at the onset, this question should be a no-brainer. Almost every other toddler these days have unprecedented access into wonderful pieces of technology such as smartphones, tablets and video game consoles. However, would these kids know how to root a smartphone, know how to switch the mobile carrier and at the very least, use their tablets to help them with their homework? If all these kids know how to do were how to download an app and use their parents' credit cards to purchase coins for their avatar's new haircut, what is the difference between that, really, and just being another consumer?

There is a marked difference between the kind of exposure to tech one used to have perhaps ten or twenty years ago, compared to what children these days are exposed to. Part of the blame should go to our dependency on closed system architecture. Thanks to the rise of Apple and their i-products, it's becoming quite difficult for the more inquisitive of our children to look into what's inside the operating system. Everything might be hyper-polished and easy to use now, but the level of customisation matters as well. Perhaps children should be exposed to  beta or buggy versions of games and apps in order to have them try and think of a reach-around themselves.

A huge part of our deal with the gods of technology is as such-- the more mature the product, the more refined it becomes at the cost of system access. Nobody wants to tinker with a perfect piece of hardware, right? If my Tesla's autopilot works just fine at the hands of Elon Musk's army of code monkeys, why bother customising the set-up just so I might have a 1%  chance of it being able to pick up my laundry on cue?

Of course this comes at the obvious risk of our gadgets perhaps literally blowing up on our faces. I forsee a lot of bricked smartphones and voided warranties in the near future. I'm adamant that this is what needs to be done to foster in my children the same love of technology I have. At the very heart of it all, the next generation of technologists need to understand that the apex or maturity of a gadget isn't merely convenience-- it's also the wild thrill of bending it to our will.