Technology savvy kids and their parents... Any thoughts?

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10/16/12 at 9:29am

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My son is almost four and is quite the talker... he was a social butterfly and talked non-stop. He talked to literally everyone and anyone he sees, but he did seem to have an affinity for pretty middle aged women... He is an exceptionally social kid but he as an even greater interest in technology especially visually stimulating things - which makes sense at that age. But, to put his technology affinity in to perspective, less than a year ago he surprised me when he found a flash game on google by actually typing the name of the game into google (I am still stumped by that since he can't read or write yet). In any event, he was able to find his favourite flash game. Most recently, I watched him set up our home computer to the power outlet, then connect the keyboard, mouse, monitor, Ethernet cable, and then hopped on to the chair and started to "surf" the net. I expose him to a lot of different things and have him socialize with other kids and adults, but he seems to be obsessed with technology and, honestly, expertly, surfs the net and takes my iphone at times to take 100s of pictures which then requires me to delete them all and to make sure that I am not accidentally sharing any of the pictures because some are... well, let's say, private and I am sure most people would not want to see them suddenly showing up somewhere on the net (as a side note, by the way, this in turn actually made me get an iphone app that prevents the saving of pictures and basically let's the kid take snapshots non-stop without me having to worry him filling my storage and, most importantly, share "compromising" pictures by accident - I mean, who knows what kind of "pictures" he is taking!?). Anyway, he loves the iphone and the non-stop picture snapping and often just stands there and "socializes" with me or some stranger while holding the phone in front of him and snapping shots en mass. Now, the whole situation makes me wonder how much of technology should we let our kids have and be exposed to? I am afraid that kids that are too tech-savvy eventually may not have the urge to connect to the world other than with some gadget wrapped around their fingers? While my iphone and this new camera app is his favorite toy (and, don't get me wrong, I am very happy he is tech-savvy since I am myself and I am very happy I found a toy and app that meets his and my parental requirements) I can't stop being in awe of how the world has changed since I was a kid and wonder being tech-savvy... is it really
good for our kids?