When was the last time you had an opportunity to play an old school board game with two 4th graders (a 9 year old and a 10 year old), who both have newer versions of the iPhone than I do and who’d rather be sitting next to each other and interacting virtually via interactive games such as Roblox? Well, I just had the supreme pleasure of doing just that. I, of course, brought out the ‘ole Monopoly board game to show off my skills, which the young lads had never played. And after 50 minutes, the girls could not believe we were still playing this one game and no winner had yet been named.

It made me think about the importance of technology and its impact in today’s more modern world, both from my perspective as a millennial and from the perspective of my two 4th grade play dates. And the thoughts that came to mind include:

• What does it take to understand technology?
• How does our generation keep our minds sharp enough to interact with aspects of today’s trending technology?
• How do we preserve some of the classic joys of the basic board game while infusing the faster paced temp of online gaming?

All these questions made me realize:

• How little I engage with some of the basic technology tools I use on a daily basis (I likely use around 4.5 – 5% of my iPhone features).
• How I require usage of my laptop just to type this article.
• How I’d rather listen to music on my daily NYC train commute rather than explore how to create the music I enjoy.

If you gave some thought to ways you could sharpen your technology tool kit, what would you come up with? Clearly, there’s no right or wrong here, just motivation to expand and grow our capabilities. And to be clear, I’m not referring to Instagram, Snap Chat and some of the mind numbing smart phone games as there’s enough of that happening to sustain growing countries.

I think COMMON says it best in his new Microsoft commercial, “We have more power at our fingertips than entire generations that came before you” and “It’s not about what technology can do. It’s about what you can do with it.”

Funny enough, while completing this article, I was invited to another game of monopoly by my 4th grade friends, who both think I’ll come in last place again🤔, which is cute. However, the real crux of it all for me with receiving their invitation was while I lured them into my reality, these young lads most certainly heightened my senses to theirs.

Love & Light,
W. Taylor