I just had a proud daddy moment. My 8 yr old son called me into the living room where he was sitting in front of the computer with Google up & he asked me “Dad, how do you spell Phineas & Ferb?” I’ve never even heard of the show and I had no idea how to spell it so I asked him what it was and what he was trying to accomplish.
Eli let me know that he’s watched Phinneas & Ferb “like a hundred times” & he was curious how many other people watched it. Pretty cool right? Here he is, 8 yrs old, he has a question that he wants an answer to so he hops on Google to find the answer.
We proceeded to Google where I started slowly typing f-i-n-e-u-s then a list or suggestions popped up with several misspellings. The first result was for Phineas & Ferb on Disney so he knew that was the right one. He then popped back over to the other tab and finished typing his question in Google.
Not wanting him to lose confidence in his ability to find answers using Google, I cautioned that he may not find the exact answer, because that’s probably not a really common question & left him to figure it out on his own. “Dad, 835 people have voted on it. That must mean a lot of people watch it”. I agreed and congratulated him for finding an answer.
If you’re curious, millions of people watch the show. Here’s some info about Phineas & Ferb viewership. I don’t know much about it, but it’s a Disney show so I’m hoping it’s good.
We definitely live in a new era with 8 yr old kids turning to Google for answers & I kind of have mixed emotions about it. What other types of questions is he going to turn to Google for when he wants answers… There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle so I guess I’ll just monitor his activity & teach him to police himself. It’s like my Staff Sgt Thomas often said while I was in Marine Combat Training: “Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do”.
My fingers are crossed.