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Life will be interesting and diverse for the next generation of kids as they grow up in our connected, global society – that is, if a balance between technology agility and life skills can be achieved. After all, what will life be like for a generation where more children know how to play a computer game rather than know how to ride a bike?

A recent study uncovers some disturbing trends about increasing tech competencies compared to the simplicities and perhaps necessities, of certain life skills. For instance, the study showed that 58% of 2 – 5 year olds can play a basic computer game while 52% can ride a bike. The Digital Diaries study from AVG surveyed 2,200 online moms of kids aged two – five years in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the EU nations of U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Riding a bike is a seriously fun life skill. My twin brothers were all of 2 1/2 when I decided it was time to get rid of their speed-inhibiting training wheels. I was so over their slowness and needed them to become real competitors in the daily race down the long driveway! So one day, my 7-year-old self gathered up the little tikes into the garage while I snagged a screwdriver from my dad’s wall-of-tools. I proceeded to unscrew those kill-joy training wheels once and for all. I helped them on their bikes and one at a time, gave them a good push from behind while they deftly exited the garage into the light of day, wobbling into the big world at first, then confidently balancing themselves down the driveway. Neither of them suffered harm during this experiment, mind you: they were biking naturals! Their toddler mindset removed any fear and gave them the I-can-be-big-too confidence they needed to master the balancing act of bikedom. I couldn’t be more proud of them in that moment. Soon after, my parents emerged from the house with collective gasps as they witnessed my toddler brothers riding on two wheels, but they quickly recovered when they saw their sons’ enthusiasm and newfound skill.

Now back to the numbers.  Only 20% of the children in the study can swim without help, 11% can tie their shoelaces unaided and 20% know how to make an emergency phone call. Yet, 63% know how to power up a computer and turn it off and 69% can use a mouse. More computer skills stats include the fact that 19% can operate a smartphone or tablet, 25% know how to operate a web browser, 16% can browse between web sites and 15% know at least one web address.

Thankfully, 37% can write their first and last names. But isn’t that a little telling? Twice as many children can operate a mouse than can write their names? What’s happening at home that brings these statistics to life? Children merely imitate the behavior they see. The connected lives of parents – namely mostly Gen X parents in this study – are having an impact on the skill sets that children will develop.

85% of a child’s core brain structure is formed by age three so what happens in the earliest years of life form a person’s belief structure, habits, relational capabilities for the rest of their life. While this is just one study and we have yet to see how quickly these children will catch up the analog skills of life, it does illuminate trends that we all should be aware of when dealing with children.

Teaching children life-hacking skills are times that can be savored for decades to come. There is plenty of time to teach tech-savviness but the skills learned in the early years about life and human relationships will become programmed into their psyches the rest of their lives.

I’m a Gen X-er and I spend most of my days and some of my evenings on my computer. My job is in technology so I have to live online most of the time. I also have an iPhone and carry it with me so I can stay connected wherever I go. But I’m not a wholesale technophile:  I deeply value “off time” and the authentic relationships in my life and when I’m too connected, those I am “connected to” suffer and so do I.

Apparently, others feel the same way. New research exposes evidence that our digital interconnectedness does not generally produce authentic relationships. Rather, people are becoming increasingly alienated and dissatisfied with their relationships.

A recent book by MIT science professor Sherry Turkle, “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other” discusses the ubiquity and usefulness of technology in contrast to the quality of our human relationships. Technology holds a major role in most people’s work lives and its high value in our society is merited. But while the casual observation is that the age of social networks is improving our interconnectedness, the reality may be that technology is failing to facilitate real communication, making people more closely tied to machines than each other. In short, too much technology is exacting an increasingly apparent toll on our relationships and health.

The fact is, humans are hard-wired to connect with other people. But we’re starting to prefer technology over people: “Our relationships with robots are ramping up; our relationships with people are ramping down.”  (Excerpt from “Alone Together”).

Sadly, many teens now gather their self-identity from what their online network says about them instead of discovering who they really are. As Susan Maushart, author of the just-released “The Winter of our Disconnect” reported, her digitally connected teen girls had become “accessories of their own social-networking profile, as if real life were simply a dress rehearsal (or more accurately, a photo op) for the next status update.”

Perhaps some parents are driving the trend, with digital addictions birthed out of the necessity to be always accessible to work then slithering into their home lives. Parents are gravitating toward texting their children because they think that they’re connecting more with their kids when in reality, the medium only allows shallow connections.

As chronicled in “The Winter of our Disconnect,” Maushart’s solution was a season of unplugging. She admits that her gadget addiction was as serious as her teenage children. She went so far as to disconnect the electricity for three weeks to begin the experiment and coax the teens into appreciating electricity, much less the internet. Instead of texting, being tethered to the iPhone, playing video games, watching TV, chatting on Facebook and listening to iPods independently, the single mom of three spent time with her children playing board games, looking at photos, enjoying family meals and listening to music collectively. Time could be spent in rest, community and introspection:  Maushart writes that her kids “awoke slowly from the state of cognitus interruptus that had characterized many of their waking hours to become more focused logical thinkers.”

While this experiment represents an extreme, the point is to listen to the positive changes wrought in their lives as a result of connecting with themselves and each other, in real life (RL for you texters). It’s a good reminder that we have a choice to turn off when we want to.

We can consciously allow time to disconnect and stop the obsessive-compulsive check-ins, email scans, Facebook updates, Twitter posts and general connectedness that drives many people. It’s about rediscovering the very real face-to-face relationships that satisfy deep-seated human needs and even connecting with ourselves for greater mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health.

Maybe you’ll choose to disconnect daily, weekly, or less frequently, but when you do, know that you’re taking a positive step to staying grounded with yourself and the relationships you value most.

Side note – the picture chosen for this blog is not my favorite. I wanted a positive image of a modern family, with teens, having dinner. But it was not to be. At iStockPhoto, there are 1100 photos in the search results for “family dinner” but add “teens” to the criteria and you are left with 20 photos, most of them old school (no offense). Perhaps something is wrong with our society when you can’t find 1 decent modern family picture in 1100.