Here’s my 18 month old, watching Polish cartoons on YouTube right after waking up. Think of all the technology* that had to come together to make this happen and how technology helps to preserve and spread culture.
Just 10 years ago this wasn’t possible. She would’ve had to be in Poland or we’d have to buy a special cable package with a polish channel (which would probably not be available in South Florida since there’s not that many polish people down here). If we had gotten a polish channel, we’d probably have to have her watch tv at a certain time and the cartoon she’s watching is probably too old to be aired.
She’s able to watch Polish cartoons and her mom is happy to know her daughter is having a similar cultural experience as the one she had during her childhood, to reinforce the language.
I’m able to teach her so many things with a few creative YouTube searches or with Google/Bing image search (for vocabulary and object recognition exercises), my baby’s cognitive development and language development eclipses mine probably by 3 fold when I was that age.
Her vocabulary is not only far larger than mine at that age, she knows most of it in spanish, polish and english (there’s just no other way for her to interact with the grand parents). She’s probably listened to more music since she was in the womb than all the music I heard up until age 4.
I think we should all be making our babies consume as much knowledge as possible, the rate of change they will have to go through during their lifetimes will be brutal, and they’ll need the tools to handle it and stay current. It will be amazing to see what these babies will be able to do for the world once they grow up.
High level Technologies worth mentioning for this to happen.
C, C++, Linux, Android, High Speed Inter networks and all of their stack which is too big to mention (the internet), WiFi, Dual Core cpus (and all the technology to make that happen starting from nanoscale transistors), Flash Memory, capacitive touchscreen, lithium batteries, Liquid Cristal Displays, Video Codec Technology, YouTube.
It would be interesting to see how the brains of babies born in this day and age develop compared to those that were never exposed to the high volume volume of information and media that is provided through the internet. I’m sure certain areas of the brain would be more active and develop differently.