Some young kids at a local school community in North Carolina have come up with an interesting and creative way to pass the time. The kids have created “The Laptop Club” where you can draw and create your own personal laptop on colored construction paper and then proceed to pretend-email your friends in the classroom with it.
It may sound trivial, but The Laptop Club generates some great insight into what young kids between the ages of 7 and 9 consider important in their personal and social lives.
Amy Tiemann of CNET blog (parent.thesis) came across this kid phenomenon and gave a short interview on The Morning News.
A lot of the children’s keyboards have buttons dedicated to different ways to shop, or to pop-culture icons. Where is this coming from?
I used to suspect that the idea of Tween Culture was an urban myth created by marketers, but now I believe that wherever it’s coming from, it is a real phenomenon. Eight years old appears to be a watershed year for many girls in which they begin to participate in pop culture and also crystallize their social structure. Knowing who your friends are, and either committing to a best friend or figuring out how to remain friends with everyone, are very important. That’s what fascinated me about their laptops. It was a way to demonstrate their knowledge of pop culture and social networks. Having your name on your friend’s keyboard is a little like being in someone’s “Top 8 friends†on MySpace. And yet these kids most likely don’t even know about MySpace yet.
If you want to see more photos like the one above, go to The Morning News article about The Laptop Club and view their gallery.
Kids…they draw the darnedest things!
