This sight gladdens a mother's heart. It's my Wee Guy, taking photos of the waves breaking on the venetian shoreline on his iPod before posting them to Instagram, using my WiFi as a tethered signal.
Now - I have been accused of wasting my time on social media, "Haven't you got anything better to do?" The enquirer didn't understand twitter or Facebook or Flickr or blogger or any firm of engaging with others online, so no surprise I suppose.
The Wee Guy though has recently discovered Instagram, and the friends on there, and the huge Minecraft community who comment on the blocky screen grabs. Right now, he's instagramming his way around Scotland and Venice, sharing his travel finds with a growing online network of friends.
I'm sure that some readers will consider him too young for this, bewailing a childhood wasted in front of a screen and open to every cyberpredator under the sun. Rest assured - we don't drop the parenting when he's online. As with parents in the past, were trying to do our very best for him. And this includes getting him prepared for an online future and digital presence, the extent of which families have not had to cope with before now.
While we are well aware of the screaming edicts of limiting screen time and not rotting our kids' brains with pixels, we're also preparing him for a digital future that will most likely involve electronic social interaction and virtual relationship reputation management.
We're not planning on sending him out there as a newbie.
The best learning is done early and at home.
