Digital natives flourish in the online world. But what of those just getting the hang of their multi-media playground? What skills and practices will help a first grader get off on the right foot when it comes to tech? Randi Zuckerberg’s picture book Dot. recommends a balanced regime of digital and physical recreation.
Dot, a fashionably-sketched tech savvy young girl, is first seen as an all-digital all-the-time type: “She knows…how to tweet and to tag.” She’s fluent online and unprejudiced in her choice of devices. Digital knowhow keeps Dot well connected and endlessly adventurous. In this way, Dot is in lock step with her creator-author Zuckerberg, known for her roles as Facebook’s first marketing lead and now CEO of the Zuckerberg Media production company.
Dot has a dog — a conceit perhaps for Dot’s spirited side — and the two can’t stay put. The loyal and expressive dog loses patience waiting for Dot and bounds out of the house for a little recess. Not long after, Dot becomes thoroughly exhausted with her digital life. And, she’s shooed outside, thanks to a cameo appearance by her mother’s clapping hands.
Immediately, Joe Berger’s illustrations suggest that life now is much more colorful and visually boisterous than it was online. Once outside, Dot is all about DIY and hands-on and interactivity, playing with her peers. And in the end, she seamlessly blends her digital life with her in-person interests.
Dot is smart, well-rounded and a nifty poster child for tech-life balance. And without being cautionary or saccharine, Zuckerberg’s first picture book nudges young readers toward an idyllic childhood in the digital age.
It’s not just children that need this balance. Make sure you join SMW NYC this SMW14 for a host of events on how tech can help bring you back to a balance. Also read our previous post: Social, Mobile, Digital, Livable: A Review of Randi Zuckerberg’s Dot Complicated
Deanna Utroske is the Social Media Brand Director for New York Women in Communications and writes on women’s career issues, lifestyle topics and more. Follow her on Twitter @DeannaUtroske