My older son has a laptop. He bought it with his own money, and he loves it! He has become very proficient at it, and uses it for games, homework assignments (really!), programming tasks, music, social communications, etc. He has developed quite an affinity for it, and is even talking about a career in the industry. I can't say I'm all that upset about it.
Now my younger son wants one too. He doesn't have the same connection with computers, but in all honesty, hasn't been given the same opportunities yet either, so you never know. I don't want to deprive him of the experience. I also don't want to spend my life being his system administrator, cleaning up the mess he makes. I've already had to rebuild the shared system in the kitchen, due to some...uhhh...unfortunate visits to non-safe websites.
The act of buying a computer today is much different than it was a decade ago. There are many subtle choices to be made, but basically every computer that exists today is one hundred times better than anything that existed a decade ago (thanks Mr. Moore), and usually ten times better than what you really need. I mean, how much processing is required to move some numbers around, edit an email, or browse the web?
And the cost is PHENOMENAL! I used to put away $2,000 before I even thought about buying a new machine. Now, a few hundred dollars gets you something with a decent dual-core processor, sufficient disk space, webcam, operating system, wireless connectivity, etc. It's quite the marvel of modern technological advancement.
So, I suppose I'll let him crawl into the often maddening but always exciting world of computer system ownership. Hopefully his brother will share the load of system administration training with me, and together we can teach him a thing or two. Hopefully it's more about the wonders of science and logic than it is about viruses and dark corners of the Internet. Either way, it's bound to be an adventure.
Oh ya...and the best part of it all is....I'll regain the use of my iPad again! That makes it all totally worth it.
Don