I just read an article where the author lamented the fact that kids growing up in our increasingly digital world won’t have the same opportunities for serendipity that we did. Physical copies of books and music albums aren’t laying around waiting for a curious youngster. I’m not too worried about the ramifications of that in particular because I believe we can actively share the things we know of, the great books and songs, which will result in an even stronger bond than a child coming across old music their parents like. I can share The Beatles with my daughter and at “hey I like this and I think you will too.”
But the article did make me think about what I am leaving behind. While digital artifacts can be harder to happen upon accidentally, they provide a much better way to transfer information. Like this blog. If I continue to write a blog post every day then I’ll have years of content to provide my daughter. I’ve also created a playlist of songs I’ve shared with her that I’ll continue to add to over the years. All our photos are in the cloud, making family photo albums so much easier to pass along than the old photo books.
I can only imagine that over the years more of our lives will be able to be shared with our children digitally. While I love sitting down with a good physical copy of a book or listening to a good record on my turntable, I’m much more excited about how much I’ll be able to share with my daughter because everything is becoming digital.