MacBook, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and now iPad mini. How much gadgets do we really need? The cynic in me, sometimes wishes for the good ole simple days, when apple and blackberry are just something we eat and not something we tinker around. A tablet is something we swallow when we’re sick, and not something we play with. A notebook and a pad are something that has lined papers that we write on, not that one we can google something in the internet with. Well you can also say that google and internet are words that don’t exist yet.

However, I will say that not acknowledging these new technologies and gadgets, that really changed the way we live, is like burying your head on the ground. In truth, we have some of these “toys” lying around in our house. My children are well adept to these devices, and use them to do their homework, or “homeplay”  if we’re not attentive. My wife likes reading books on her gizmo, as well as playing Fruit Ninja. Even toddlers today know how to operate an iPad. My son who is nine, is now asking me when can he have his own phone, just like her teenage sister do. I told him he can use his toy walkie-talkie to call, and can even do morse code when he wants to text, thus he does not need a phone.

I let my kids know that I was 33 years old when I had my first laptop and was 34 years old when I had my first cellphone. I did not have my first “smart” phone (were the old phones “dumb”?) until last year. To this they will reason that when I was in their age, the computers that were as powerful as the current laptop, were contained in a room as big as our house, and mobile phones were carried in a large backpack. Though texting already exist when I was young – it was called a telegram. Yes, our kids live in a different era of technology.

Last week, when the new iPad mini came out, my daughter stated that she would like go to the Apple store and see them. (Note to myself, is “seeing” means her subtle way of saying “having” it?) Upon hearing this, my son ran upstairs to the bathroom and got something. He came back with a wide mischievous grin and handed something (see photo) to her sister and mockingly said: “here’s your iPad mini!”

(sanitary) I-pad mini?

We all can’t help but laugh, including my daughter, upon seeing what my son did. I wonder where this little rascal got this ridiculous idea. I guess, the “apple” did not fall far from the tree. And I am not talking about computers.