by Cellobella on Monday, June 9, 2008
My girl reads a lot of fiction but not books.
She reads fan fiction. Fiction written by fans of an author using the author’s world, and the author’s characters.
In Dippity’s case it’s Harry Potter and Avatar and there is a lot of it.
Fan fiction is not a new thing and I suspect some interesting collaborations have come out of it… so the writing isn’t all bad. And if it inspires someone to write, well, isn’t that a good thing?
She spends a lot of her free time with her head in a laptop – would I care so much if it was in a book? After all much of my childhood was spent reading. I read everywhere – walking to and from school, in the car, in bed, I didn’t feel dressed unless I was holding a book… so what is the difference?
I guess to be fair she did read the original Harry Potters before going online. I guess what I really hate is her unwillingness to try new authors.
It makes it very boring when going to a bookshop or library.
Should I be concerned? Or should I just be grateful that she’s reading… anything at all?
by Cellobella on Saturday, May 10, 2008
I’m sitting here with my daughter’s school laptop in bed (feeling crapola with a cold) as I write this so I’m aware that I’m being a bit hypocritical…
Here’s the thing. My daughter has gone to a new school this year. A school that insists that every child should use a laptop from Grade 5. Their argument is that we live in an age where computers and digital devices are a part of our lives and that we should make use of every tool we can to educate our children. And yes, I get that.
But since we’ve had this third computer in the house we barely see our 11 year old. It’s Youtube 24/7 – or until Groover goes mental because we’ve been shaped again. She doesn’t seem to read books anymore – it’s chapter after chapter of fan fiction.
We insist that she uses the computer in public and we’ve learned that you take the laptop away from her at bedtime – what I’m not seeing is a whole lot of homework done on the computer and given that, I wonder why the school doesn’t store the wretched things in the classroom. Do they really need to take them home?
The only good thing is that at least she’s not fighting with my son now over the second computer.
So here I am enjoying her MacBook interface on our wireless system (which doesn’t seem to work for my work laptop) and whinging.
Partly it’s the lazy parent in me that finds it hard to cope – I get tired of continually taking it away from her and telling her off for exceeding our bandwidth quota again.
And part of it is my old fashioned sense of media. I want my child to enjoy books as books! Not fan fiction. Although, having said that if she was writing her own stories… well now, that would be different. And maybe endless reading of it will lead to writing her own…
In the meantime my darling Dipp has earned a merit award at school. So maybe the laptop isn’t the monster I make it out to be.
Oh, you ask, why do I have precious time on the new toy? Ah, she’s out on her brother’s bike getting some fresh air.
I asked her first!
Some parenting tips please! How do you manage computer time in your home?
photo credit: Apollo-Jack
by Cellobella on Sunday, February 24, 2008
Today the Sunday paper’s real estate section taught me that areas like the one we have our computers in is no longer a “bar” but an “e-nook”.
Here’s me in my e-nook:
As you might be able to tell in this photo – waaay back in 1977 when our house was built, complete with exposed beams, chocolate coloured metal window frames and hanging garden in the entry – it was a bar.
In just one generation we’ve turned our repository for alcohol into an office. Our beer fridge is now relegated to the laundry.
But how long will it last?
Already laptops and mobiles, playstations and PDA’s are seeing the need for the e-nook disappear. Add to that fridges with computers in them and surely it can’t be long before the only thing left is a lonely printer – and a wireless hub.
Perhaps the e-nook will become the e-cupboard or even the e-drawer?
Certainly we are seeing in our house the development of an e-breakfast bar.
What are you seeing in your house?
