I found a fascinating article in my inbox today from SearchInsider, titled “Grandma via YouTube,” which focused on the theory that the younger you expose a person to technology, the more likely their brain is to adapt to it and actually function differently. This theory, based on studies from Mark Prensky (creator of more than 50 software games for learning) and Gary Small (an expert on the brain), identifies something I’ve always thought about myself.

I was raised in the ’70’s, but my dad was a computer engineer and I was the only kid on my block with a personal computer in 1977. He sat me down and taught me how to program in Basic, and how to use this gigantic boxy thing that took up most of our garage. Remember, this was back in the day of green and black monitors, letter quality paper fed printers and no mouse. I was six and writing programs, and I have always felt that this early start understanding and using computers made me different. I had an atari but also used it for development and only rarely put in the Adventure or Space Invaders cartridges. I pursued a career in television and film, but have always come back to working in the technology industry because it just comes so easy to me. In the 80’s, I joked that I often thought I WAS a computer, and had searched for a SCSI port on me. I guess now, I’d be looking for firewire?

Needless to say, even without these studies, I recognized that my early start helped me enormously. When I procreated I headed immediately to the apple store and bought my brand new babe a mac. She’s four now, and actively spends time learning on the web on the sites I allow her to visit – Disney, Noggin, Getty Games, among others where she enjoys playing games and doesn’t realize that it’s teaching her to read along the way. My 2 year old son watches her, and will be even more adept as he gets a head start learning from her. (This seems to be having the same effect with potty training, but that’s another blog post probably not for THIS blog.)

I’m going to spend some time pouring through both Prensky and Small’s web sites and see what else I can learn from them and put into practice with my youngin’s. I want my kid’s brains as comfortable with technology as possible, since I know the world that they’ll be living in will be closer to the Jetsons than I ever imagined.