Our Pandemic Story: How we Managed to Survive the Technology Monster

 

We are an average family, with average income, average needs and average know-how on digital technology. But the pandemic burst our safety bubble and brought us face-to-face with the Technology Monster. Read on to know how we managed the Technology Monster and survived the pandemic with limited resources at our disposal.

Our Profile

Me: A contractual teacher 

My Spouse: A small-time businessman

Our Child: A sixth grader

The Humble Devices we Own

• Redmi 7a, the smartphone which my spouse uses
• Redmi 8a, the smartphone which I use, and also let my child use so that I can keep an eye on her online activities as well as limit her screen time
• Acer Aspire V5, which is my secondary laptop purchased way back in 2013
• HP Pavillion x360, which is my primary laptop, that I bought from Amazon in 2019
• JioFi Modem for wifi connection

The Beginning: Tackling the WhatsApp Monster

March 2020: Here comes the virus unleashing the Technology Monster! Things were exciting as well as scary in the beginning. My spouse was out of business suddenly and much to my dismay, our smartphones became our institutions of teaching and learning. 

As a concerned parent, I had always limited my child's smartphone usage, especially the use of WhatsApp and other social media. I even closely monitored what my child watched on YouTube, and ensured that only educational and artistic content was watched.

But with the beginning of remote teaching and learning, all educational institutions started out on WhatsApp much to my horror! I could see many of my child's classmates had their own digital devices. But I couldn't allow my child to have her own device, especially before ensuring that she was ready to navigate her way safely through cyberspace. 

Here's how I managed the WhatsApp Monster:

• I installed dual apps for WhatsApp on my smartphone device, one for my child's use, and the other for my use.
• During her class hours, I made her use WhatsApp web on my secondary laptop, all the while monitoring her activities on my smartphone.
• All important messages, lesson videos and documents sent by the teachers on WhatsApp were star marked for ready reference, and also immediately saved in Google Drive.
• Apart from the groups created by the subject teachers, many other social groups started to take shape with funky names. I explained to my child the futility of being a member of all groups and made her choose only two groups because I believe interacting with friends is important as well for her social development.
• As the social groups started to mature, I had to counsel my child to limit unnecessary chats and focus more on meaningful chats and meaningful friendship. 
• I restrained from judging my child or her friends and built a top-notched trust level with her to ensure that she doesn't hide anything from me. This is how I learned about her crush and everyone else's crushes. I'm now granted full access to check or read her messages and sometimes reply on her behalf. 
• Our trust level grew stronger by the day, and my child didn't feel the need to delete "sensitive" chats to keep me in the dark before I could see them. Everything was open between us, and what's important is that she asks for my counsel every now and then on "sensitive" issues.
• As a teacher, I learned how to use Google Classroom, a better LMS to WhatsApp. I ensured my students became familiar with the interface of Google Classroom. Within a couple of weeks, we were comfortably discussing lessons, uploading audio-video materials and pdf files, uploading assignments, grading assignments, and having fun while doing all of it.

The Interim: Tackling the Boredom Monster

Okay, now that the WhatsApp monster was taken care of, it was time to tackle the Boredom Monster. Besides spending quality time with my child, I had to teach her how to spend quality time in cyberspace during her free hours. Here's what I did:

• I created a google account for my child and linked her account to mine. This way I could check what she's watching on YouTube, and what she's browsing on the internet.
• I enrolled her on Udemy for an Art Course on Mangaka, which she completed successfully, and is still practising to master.
• I signed her up on DIKSHA, NDLI and eSkillIndia so that she is in touch with the academic world besides her school.
• I also let her sign up on Minecraft, AmongUs and Roblox, which she enjoys playing. However, she plays any one of these games only for an hour a day, and sometimes not at all.
• She's also learning SCRATCH programming during her free time.
• For my professional growth, I started enrolling in online courses and attending online workshops and webinars. I even opened Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to connect professionally with the likes of me.

The Continuity: From Consuming to Producing

March 2021: Well, technologically, I'm modestly armoured now and a little more confident than the previous year. My Child and I grew up together learning and finding our paths in cyberspace with the help of the Internet, and yes, with the help of Google. Today, we have not only managed the Technology Monster but have levelled-up on the virtual world. We discuss a lot of things like - responsible social media usage, internet etiquette, cyberbullying, cybercrimes, internet addiction, fear of missing out (FOMO), etc. 

We have also realised that the best way to manage the Technology Monster is to not just consume content created by others but to produce our own content. This blog post is a result of such thinking! And my child is on the verge of starting her own YouTube channel on mangaka art.

Today I feel that my child is ready to handle her own digital device, and together we are trying to find the right one for her. We are considering buying the Samsung S6 tablet from Amazon as it has a stylus which is so important for her and is well within our budget as well. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading my post. Please drop in your valuable comments to encourage us. Until my next post, Namaste!

*** Check out these devices from Amazon:

• HP Pavilion x360 14-cd0050TX Convertible
• Redmi 8A Dual 
• Airtel LTE 4g Hotspot Wifi Router
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S6

Disclaimer: The author is also an Amazon Associate and has no other role besides recommending products from Amazon. All products are hyperlinked to Amazon.in, so kindly use your own discretion as per your need before purchasing the products.