So Simple, Even My Kids Can Do It!

I’m talking about WordPress. Yes, it’s so easy to use, that my two middle school children can handle it.

I’ve known Virtual Mike for a few years, having not had the pleasure yet of a real world meeting, and have read his musing off and on for that same time frame.  When it came time for me to take control back of my domain and website from a national real estate hosting company, I went with Mike’s recommendation of WordPress, and haven’t looked back. The flexibility, low cost, control and ease of use all made this platform a natural fit.

So after I became a convert, I did what most people do, I made both of my children choose a domain name and set up their own WordPress site.  Totally normal, right?  They don’t update it as often as they should, and sometimes they don’t seem as enthused about working on their websites as I think they ought to be.  But they can do it.

Both sites are totally a work in progress, with unfinished pages here and there, and empty widgets and footers flourishing. They’ve been known to roll their eyes a bit when I ask them to go update their site, or even worse, they may refer to me as a “techno-weenie”.  Even to their friends.

But they are proud, even if they won’t admit it to me.  They like to have their friends and family stop by their sites and leave a comment or two.  My daughter has already used her site as an application to her school’s technology club, and now her teacher holds up the site as an example to other students!  My son has been asked to stay after school, in a good way, to help a teacher with her French Club website.

And as a father, what’s not to like?  My children are keeping up with modern technology, are learning how the larger world integrates social media into websites, even if they aren’t yet allowed to have their own Facebook account, and they have taken ownership of their names on the internet, which is likely to only become more and more important as the years pass.

I don’t know what the future will bring us, I don’t know if WordPress will last as the dominant web platform for the next 20 years, I don’t know if every single person needs their own website, or even what technology we haven’t thought of yet will be the next big thing.  But I do know that my kids are engaged with the modern world, both virtual and real, and that WordPress has made that interaction as smooth and simple as possible.