BY KARISHMA

We are the first generation of parents raising “Linked Humans”. Every question our child asks gets an instant digital answer. But there is a hidden cost to this instant link. We are giving them the world's knowledge but we are taking away their instinct. Our children are not just using AI but are constantly connected to it. We are in a rush to make our children “future ready” but in this process we are stealing the most precious thing they can never get back and that is the time where they can simply be themselves. Nowadays childhood has become a race to win with the help of a machine. And the role of parents is more challenging as to figure out how to use this technology as a compass to lead our children back in the outside world, rather than a wall that keeps them in. 

SMART MACHINES, SILENT MINDS?

While AI makes life faster it also creates a new kind of struggle for our children.AI is way too agreeable. It echoes what we want to hear. As a result our children are losing ‘the muscle of curiosity’, all the whys vanish because they can just click on a search button that results in them being no more participants in life. There is no boredom resulting in lack of creativity. To know about a bird they will not move out and find one they will just ask AI to show the picture of the same. By leaning too hard on these perfect tools our kids risk losing their own unique voices and the grit that comes from doing things the hard way.

SOME FIXES FOR THE PARENTS OF ALL AGES TO MAKE SURE THAT OUR CHILDREN HOLDS THE DRIVERS SEAT:
 

1. THE ZOMBIFIED SCREEN TIME (For our little ones): Kids get stuck to the videos which never end, giving them instant dopamine. Sometimes, we hand over the phone to our kids while cooking or to finish a phone call. Ten minutes later, your child is a screen zombie staringat a screen that won't stop scrolling. As a result, they stop playing outside and forget how to be bored. Instead of making home a warzone and snatching the phone away. Whenever you need a break don't give them a screen to watch. Give them something to hear. For example, we can ask Alexa or Siri to tell a story where (the child's name) is a super hero. The child has to use their own imagination to picture the story while they play with their toys. It will keep them busy and their brain stays “on”.
    
2. THE HOMEWORK SHORTCUT (For our school kids): By using AI, children finish their homework in 10 to 15 minutes. We understood by doing that homework they didn't learn anything. They just asked a bot for the answer. It felt like cheating and made them too lazy to think and resulted in death of curiosity. They accepted all the answers given by an AI without any disagreement which again results in killing the education system. WHAT I DID WHEN MY SON WAS DOING THE SAME: Recently my son finished a debate speech in a few minutes. It was too perfect and was a copy-paste job from an AI. I asked him if you read this script, the judges will hear your passion or they will hear a robot? The next thing we told AI “Here is my son's real argument. Try to win a debate against him”. The next thing which happened, he wasn't just reading but was thinking. He used AI to find facts and test his logic, but the final words were 100 % his. The AI provided the data but my son added his own experience. We can teach our children to use AI to sharpen their own ideas. Don't let your kids use AI to finish the homework. For example, we can ask AI to explain a math fraction problem by using a story about pizza. This way AI will turn into a tutor not a machine that works for them.
    
3. THE FILTER TRAP TO LOOK PERFECT (For our TEENS): Our teenage kids are scrolling through photos of people who look “perfect” with perfect skin, perfect hair, and perfect lives. They do not realize that a lot of those pictures are made or are fixed by AI. As a result they end up feeling like they aren't good enough because they are comparing their real self with a fake computer version. We can talk to them, expose the AI magic and remind them that social media is just a highlighted reel, not the full movie. It is just a digital trick. Use an AI tool on your silly photo to turn into a model perfect picture. The laughter after seeing the model perfect picture will show how fake and easy the change is. They will learn being real is more important than being perfect.

We are not fighting the technology, we are just making sure our kids stay in the driver's seat. No AI can feel the warmth of the sun or joy of laughter but our kids can. As I mentioned in my MSN featured article (Beyond the spoon: Why connection is the secret ingredient) emotions are the secret ingredient when it comes to food. Likewise, if we teach our kids to use their own hearts and heads first, they won’t just survive in this AI world - they will lead it. Let’s raise a generation that knows how to code, but more importantly knows how to care. Let’s make sure that for every hour they spend linked to a machine, they spend two hours linked to the earth and to each other. Let’s raise kids who don’t fear making mistakes but every time they make one they learn something out of it because there's nothing in this whole world which is PERFECT. 

AUTHOR: KARISHMA