To not buy into all tech

[User97532468]

DS 7 wants something to play music on, he’s asked for a CD player but I’ve ordered him a boombox with a CD player and DAB radio. Just spoke to a friend and she’s said I should have got an Alexa type thing for him as it’s more modern. I’m not sure I want him having such easy access to things though, if he wants to know the weather he watches the weather, if he wants facts he looks in his books. Do I need to move with the times? I feel so old and out of touch and am becoming a technophobe.

Tech is great while it works.

If it fails, has that person the basic skills, knowledge to circumvent the tech failure?

I am all for teach but I make sure I don’t forget the old ways 😀

Tech is as reliable as the distance of the power cable to the mains socket 😳

Teach 😳 should be tech

I do think it's probably easier to stick with CDs for young kids. If you go all streaming, you'd have to sort out accounts and buy music on those or sort out Spotify. Definitely easier just to buy CDs at this stage, IMO (and we have a Google Home, Chromecast and a rogue Alexa)

There is nothing to sort out with Spotify surely? They support a family account. We have sonos and it’s damn easy to link with a tablet or phone. I wouldn’t buy CDs. I don’t know anyone who still buys them! It’s either streaming or vinyl surely?

Don't you have to pay monthly for a family account on Spotify? If the adults in the family don't have one, why would you want to set up one just so a child has access? I don't buy CDs any more, but my muso husband still does in preference to digital (he has loads of vinyl too) and my teenaged daughter listens to CDs as well as using Amazon and Spotify on her Dot.

7 year olds don't usually have phones and a lot of them don't have tablets, so yes, CDs are still probably less hassle!

I have already got amazon prime and Spotify subscription

But here’s a thread of why you want a echo dot and not a CD player www.mumsnet.com/Talk/Christmas/3426364-Echo-dot-What-s-the-point

My 3 yo has a tablet and my 7 yo can use a tablet to select songs on sonos. I think a lot of 7yo has tablets nowadays,

The thing is that you will end up buying the tech as well in the end. So it is better to jump in now and then you can keep yourself abreast of the sort of changes that are going to happen with a certain amount of confidence.

This is your son's world, his is the emerging generation. If you want some input into it then do it from a place that he will engage with, rather than be humouring you.

Alexa is useless if internet goes down. I have yet to find anything you could not do another way.

Ds is 10 at Xmas. He loves his CD player and any other music he wants we download onto a memory stick for him - the CD player has a USB port. He doesn’t own a mobile or a games console. Seems to be doing great in ICT at school though.
We don’t have a lot of tech in our house, just what we need rather than buying the latest gadgets for the sake of it.

If you don't already have subscriptions to streaming services for music, then I would be wary of tying yourself into a monthly subscription for a 7 year old. (I know you're not tying yourself in contractually, but you'd be setting an expectation)

My kids would love me to get a family Spotify subscription, but all my music is already digitised, so I don't fancy shelling out even more money every month for them! Don't get me wrong, I love being able to cast from my phone to my Google Home(s!), but you need to think about what benefits you'd actually be getting for the extra cost.