June 13, 2013 Our family just wrapped up an impromptu multi-generational digital debriefing with all ages in town for teen graduation.
“Wait, how’d you DO that?” became the common refrain of the day, with every generation sharing their easiest way to connect and preserve the milestone, which turned into an amusing show-n-tell.
As each generation learned from one another preserving keepsakes and capturing different media moments, it really sunk in that we were a living, breathing collaboratory of participatory learning.
Teens taught millennials photo apps to enhance Instagram like Pic Stitch for split screens and montages (perfect for ‘Transformation Tuesday’ in that was then, this is now mode) the millennials taught teens how to have patience to perfect storytelling with the six second snippets of Vine video (my nephew uses jump cut prowess that would rival Jean-Luc Godard) I shared the simplicity of Animoto for easy-peasy professional style film trailer dissolves using photos/captions/video and verbiage…and my mom reminded all of what a ‘real camera’ can do with a zoom lens, using her time with “digital natives” to triage glitches in her computer and gain quick fix guidance on the fly.
As the octogenarian matriarch, she segued from “Can you fix this? Why is it doing that?” …to a triumphant:
“Wow, I wish I had you guys nearby for tech support then I could really DO this instead of wanting to turn this laptop into a boat anchor!”
EVERYone learned SOMEthing with our collective knowledge pool, raising the bar for us all…Even the social media-phobic family members who commonly voice “I don’t need a smartphone, or Facebook, or tablet, or any of this media stuff, I’m fine…” benefited from watching others preserve the memories while they spent one on one time with the graduate doing watersports sans digital distractions.
As I racked my brain for Father’s Day gift giving with the “I don’t need a thing” guys in the crowd, (who often lead the nag fest/cacophony of “put the phone down NOW” demands to disconnect in order to reconnect without mobile media tethers) … lo and behold I discover…Voila…A Platform for Good.org beat me to the punch offering clever clip art gift coupons like a “media-free, screen-free” printable promise which is handily FREE to be tucked into a card or turned into a booklet of usable Father’s Day gifts of time.
A Platform for Good has a variety of media training time coupons and media management to get up to speed with any new device, from Nooks and Kindles to tablets and phones.
They already led the way using this coupon concept over the holidays with a smart campaign to instill digital literacy when gifting new items from parents to younger kids as well. (e.g. an iPhone with a ‘contract agreement’ and ‘terms’ among family members so all are in agreement from the get go…here’s a sample phone contract from one of my prior media management posts)
Whether you’re gifting uninterrupted “one on one time” without a partial attention deficit…
(I gave a getaway/gift of time in a media wrapper in Gilmore Girls B&B innkeeper style which was a big hit during the middle school years)…OR you’re gifting some “how to” training time on ANY platform or gizmo (from social media sites to sporty health sensors for the ‘quantified self’ dad yearning for the new FitBit Plus or MisFitShine)…
…A Platform for Good has done a great job seeding a customizable concept that you can take ‘as is’ or create coupons of your own.
Happy Father’s Day, digital dads!
Related Father’s Day Posts on Shaping Youth by Amy Jussel
Shaping Youth: Media’s Portrayal of Father Figures on TV
New Media Men Teach Mainstream Media About Fatherhood
Shaping Youth’s Fatherhood Resource Roundup
Reinventing Manhood: The Perfect Gift for a Man
Shaping Youth Asks: Who’s Your Favorite Fictional Male Role Model & Why?
Meaningful Media for Father’s Day: My Daddy Taught Me To…
Piggies & Paws for Papa’s Day: Keepsakes For Life
Free iPhone Apps For Dad He’ll Appreciate More Than Soap On A Rope
Father’s Day for $5, When Kids Want to Use Their Own Money!
Father’s Day Letter to President Obama, Bill Cosby Fatherhood & More…
Shaping Youth Via Fatherhood, Joe Kelly (The DAD man) on New Media, New Men
Predatory Practices as Sport: Boys to Men Fantasy Football Swaggerfests
Dads & Daughters Bonds Will Grow And Mature Over Time
Dads & Daughters/Peter Coyote Video
Visual Credits: The Gift of Time photo: YummyMummyClub.ca; Coupons: A Platform for Good.org, Frustrated tech cartoon/graphic: a helpful geek chic site called CodeSheriff which I’ll be perusing to get up to speed on all kinds of stuff!
Sweet! What a great multi-generational activity.
I remember heading out to an event a few years ago, having been asked to take some pictures, and all I had handy was a really nice and simple film camera. Only problem? No film. It was hysterical as I went from store to store trying to find some.
“What’s that?” One young clerk asked. Finally, in a dusty old ma and pa liquor store, I found some dusty old boxes of film. Now, that camera is gathering dust. Like the record store across from our new shop though, I suspect that some day “film” will be the new “vinyl.”
ha. Oh, Craig I can just picture you trying to find ‘film’…in this digital era…Like trying to find a payphone…as rare as the dodo bird.
I stumbled on my ‘gift stash’ of kids toys the other day and found some read-along/travel cassette tapes with books thinking, ‘somewhere throughout the globe I should be able to donate this unopened toy…but since cassettes aren’t even made by Sony anymore (as of recently…finally ‘unplugged’ the product line) it’s hard to find compatible gear…
Not sure if ‘film is the new vinyl’ but know my teen talks about how every photo frame in our house ‘stops’ when digital came into being…unless it’s a copyright/order a proof biggie like graduation, volleyball, etc.
We DO have a digital frame which entertains her grandparents immensely, but somehow the static permanence of a framed old-fashioned photo has a type of retro/secure statement attached to the feeling…It’ll be interesting to see which ‘prized possessions’ she’ll take along to college…;)