8-3 milka the computer hog

Milka's generation is the only generation to grow up with computers. This makes him very tech-savvy, but also detached from reality. He's more concerned with his "MySpace" page than his grades. He'd rather talk to his friends from across the ocean instead of having chatting together over dinner like a normal family. Honestly my biggest mistake was getting him a cell phone. My second biggest mistake was getting us internet access.

It's funny how Milka has a lot of potential with computers that could be used for his betterment. I walked in to the family room one day and saw him typing out a complicated computer programming language. He even minimized his skills, saying "Come on, it's just HTML" (which I believe stands for "HoTMaiL"). He was using it to make his own website which was about the things he enjoys: music, fashion, and photography, and DDR. With knowledge like that he could get into a great college. Technology is definitely the fastest growing field and still will be when he graduates in 2008.

Even when he's not on the computer, Milka is still using it. There's a program he uses called Kazza that downloads music. You can even "burn" the songs onto a CD to make a digital mix tape. I questioned the legitimicy of this program but Milka explained to me how it works the same way as radio stations. Like most people, our internet speed is 128.8 kbps and that means it takes about an hour to download one song. Milka has whined to the point of woof-woofing and howling for us to get high speed "Broadband" internet, which can download a song in just a few minutes. He doesn't understand that I can't give him all the luxury items he wants.

The Kazaa program is always running. This slows down our internet speed to a crawl and even when I quit it it's still running. Since it runs on the internet, I'm probably missing phone calls, potentially about work. He gets upset when I disconnect the modem while he's downloading a song because he'll have to start it over. I've seen him paw at the keyboard frustrated and awoo-ing at the computer screen when a download gets cancelled. I shouldn't spoil him like this, but I usually give him a treat and he perks right up. We've reached a compromise: Milka can download his music, but only overnight when I won't be getting phone calls.

Photography is one of Milka's main interests and he uses the computer for that a lot. He has a digital camera and uses a program called "Photo Shop" to edit his photos. He does the kinds of things in minutes that would take professionals hours. He can even take the red-eye out and fix pictures that were taken crooked. This is another skill that could get him a scholarship, but only if he gets his grades up. We've talked about art school and he needs to get a portfolio together that has more than just pictures of himself playing dressup.

Sometimes I consider limiting Milka's computer time, I cut it down to 1 hour/day when he stayed up all night once (I also threatened a dog cage with a blanket over it) but that didn't last. In spite of all these negatives, the internet is his lifeline to the world when he's not hanging out with his usual group of friends. It's causing so many problems, but without it wouldn't Milka just find other things to cause an equal amount of problems?