Adolescent Interview with my 11 year old son

This week’s assignment was to do an adolescent interview on their use of technology and social media.  My adolescent interview was with my eleven-year old son.  He got to stay up past his bedtime to help so he was pretty talkative.

I wasn’t completely surprised by his answers but I did have to stop myself from giving him answers I wanted him to say.  Suffice it to say, I did well. I held my tongue except to gather more information. I will add however, for the record, he is never on his devices “all day”.

Me: I read an article that talked about “Netspeak”.  It’s a language brought about by the web.  What words do you think you use that you learned on the web?

Son: Repetitive.

Me: Repetitive?

Son: Yeah. When ads pop up you can close out of them.  Then they ask you why you closed them and I answer, Repetitive.

Me: What else?

Son: Irrelevant, Inappropriate, Website, Download, App, Load

Son: GUI (said in a high-pitched voice)

Son: Oh, you should say it in a really high voice.  Stampy Cat and iBallisticSquid say this all the time.

Son: Lol (spelled out)

Me: Chuckles

After this question, I wasn’t sure how the interview would go.  Getting these words out of him were like pulling teeth. Perhaps it was a ruse to stay up later.  My Walter Cronkite days were over, I decided on an easier question for the next one.

Me: What types of devices do you use?

Son: iPad, iPhone, Computer in school, Chrome Book, Wii U

Me: What do you use them for?

Son: States project, Reflex Math, YouTube, Netflix, Minecraft, Text, Journey’s reading

Me: What do you really want to use them for?

Son: Movie making device, engineering and designing and I want to have a phone so I can text and call whenever I need to.

Swoon…  He had me at “Engineering and designing.”  He mentioned this past winter that he wanted to be a programmer like his mom.  Well, Santa gave him three, really cool coding books for children.  Scratch Jr., a program for coding and fun, just so happen to end up on his iPad.  Santa is really crafty.

Me: What do you think you learn when you play games or use your device?

Son:

o    Never to go in a Mob Spawner in Minecraft because you die.

o    Never delete an app when you have a lot of stuff in it, because you can’t get it back.

o    Reset things.

o    There are inappropriate ads on YouTube and I know how to x out of them.

o    Never to say things you will regret in the future because we went over that, sadly.

o    If you see something inappropriate don’t click into it, I’ll tell you.

I have to say, I thought we were going to get into the specifics of Minecraft here, needless to say I was happy that he chose to talk about other things he was learning.

I am glad he remembered the item about regretting things you say in the future.  This started with a text that I felt wasn’t appropriate for an 11-year-old and it was the reason we discussed and signed a social media agreement.

Me: How often do you use your devices? 

Son: Ah, pretty often. 

Me: How often is pretty often? 

Son: Twice a day and weekends, but now that we have summer vacation, once a day, maybe more.

I’m not sure what that means.  We have a rule, no iPad during the week unless it’s for homework.  I don’t see that changing.  Hmm, I think he might be a little disappointed.

Me: Do you think using your device is positive or negative? 

Son: Probably both

Me: Why?

Son: You get grumpy and I don’t like being grumpy. 

Me: Why do you get grumpy?

Son: When you are on the electronics all day and that’s all you want to do then if someone distracts you get annoyed.

Me:  What’s a positive?

Son: Some of the games help you in learning such as Hocus and Scratch.

Me: What is Hocus?

Son: You have to use your brain to get the cube into the slot.

Me: What is Scratch?

Son: It uses math because you learn to code.

See note at beginning of blog.  All Day?  Blink, blink.

Me: When you grow up do you want to do something with technology?

Son: Me, Alex and Hussan [his friends] are already planning our company called The Arcaders.  It’s going to be a famous video game company that makes awesome video games and put learning into it like Hocus and Scratch.  Like Club Penguin where you have to earn things. 

This was surprising to me.  I didn’t know he was having conversations like this at all.  I have a little entrepreneur on my hands. Swoon again.

Me: Do you think you pay attention when you are using your device?

Son: Kind of.  Sometimes I talk with my head looking down.  Other times, I pause what I am doing and look up.

Um Yeah. The answer is rarely.  We need to call his name several times.  Even when he is doing his homework. I’m glad that he recognizes that he sometimes doesn’t look up.  I guess that’s a start.

Me: Do you like reading on your device? 

Son: Yeah. 

Me: What have you read?

Son: I read the sample books because I can’t buy them. I read my journey stories.

He doesn’t have access to the account but I wish I knew he wanted to buy books.  He has plenty of money in his iTunes account thanks to his relatives.  We will make a change this summer when we read books together and he practices his reading comprehension and writing skills getting ready for 6^th grade. Won’t he be surprised.  

Me: What you learned about the Internet and your games?

Son: Sometimes things do not go as planned but they might if you try again. Sometimes it is inappropriate so all you have to do it tell someone and they will figure it out.

He says the word “inappropriate” a lot.  I wonder how much inappropriate content he sees.  I wonder where he gets it.  I’m usually close by when he is online so I think we need to review his social media contract again.