Mine were both raised with real world involvement with music and sports as they were inclined. They both also grew up with full emersion in modern technology, but not run amuck as so many do, using videos and games as convenient babysitters. They both knew their boundaries (and chores) with various corrective actions including spanking when appropriate but never to injury, and far less than I knew growing up, and I don't (and didn't) consider myself abused. But as they grew, for spankings to register severity would need to increase to unacceptable levels, and technology was far more important to them, so that became the punitive corrective measure of choice. Each more than once BEGGED me to give them a spanking or something else instead. NOW I had the leverage I needed! <cue evil laugh>
I wasn't perfect, far from it, and hindsight would have changed things considerably, but you do the best you can in the moment. And I must say, I couldn't be more proud. My son always had an analytic mind that I recognized as working like mine. He was enamored with video games, and I tried to use that to get him into some programming appropriate to his age, only luke warm acceptance, too slow to get results that couldn't rival "real" programs. But the seed was planted, and it grew. After that, he and I would often dissect the games, how it might work, looking for the patterns, and the variable events, learning to spot and understand them. He might not code, but he understood the logic, which he was VERY interested in seeing. He still spent more time on gams than I would have liked, but at least it provided mental stimulation other than otherwise immersive alternate reality, because he was always gaming the game, and his friends thought he was a god of the games. I even noticed that he started applying it to real world interactions, primarily by looking at relationships from the perspective of evaluating a persons likely manifestation of "enlightened self interest" to predict responses and thereby control the interactive flow. Within every group that formed around him, he was always a leader. He's also very good a "working a deal" and cleans up on Craigs List and the like. He also got (almost) straight As, a full boat ride for a Masters Degree, graduated Magna Cum Laude majoring in CS with a minor in Math (as did his father) AND Business Management (not me). He's now a rising star making quite a name at one of the biggest technology companies out there, and he has a bright future.
My daughter loved video games, but had a very different mind, a different way of thinking. My son was easy, his mind worked much like mine, not so much hers. She could watch videos again and again back to back without loosing interest. But, I soon realized that each time she watched it, she was seeing new things, seeing the story from a different perspective, so I spent time talking with her and encouraging to spot the patterns that are almost always there (why I hate movies). Once you spot it, you can almost dictate the rest of the film, except for the stuff they throw in JUST to annoy the pattern watchers. While I could not have survived watching all those shows with her, we had great times going meta on the movies and analyzing the plot elements and pattern, as well as where they could have been improved and why. She's no programmer, and I think she would be miserable working as one, but she is 100% fully tech savy juggling and configuring for purpose tablets, phablets and smart phones as casually as anyone you will meet. But she wanted something different, a family, and she's done rather well in that respect. She's a great mother and fierce protector of her family, particularly my 2 young grandsons (oldest is just turned 2). Her husband is Army and gone a lot, so she basically runs the house. And at the same time, including brutal PCS from Ft Wainright to Ft Carson, she managed to get an online degree and certificate to be a "Vet Tech" focusing on larger farm animals like Cows and Pigs. She just showed me her final summary report that showed near perfect scores across the board, top of her class. And she did most of the class on her laptop or tablet while rocking or nursing one or both of the boys. Good thing she had those deep tech skills. Once she gets on an even keel, when the boys need her less, she intends to go further, hopefully becoming a licensed vet, again, focusing on livestock and such.
They both make me very proud. They made their own decision, made a few mistakes and recovered those situations by doing the right thing, no running to daddy to dig them out. I could not be more proud of them both. Technology isn't the problem. It's parents who either don't want to be or are not mentally equipped to be parents.