I'm glad I grew up with my favorite things being polly pockets, legos, scooters and sidewalk chalk rather than iPhones, tablets, and advanced gaming systems.
It amazes me everyday the technological advances our world is making, but it also terrifies me seeing technology consume people, especially kids. Although technology is a huge part of my life now, I am so happy that I wasn't consumed by it as a child. The closest thing to technology was PC computer games that took forever to turn on, hit clips that played the same song over and over again until you got a new song chip, and tomogotchis and gameboys. As a child I spent my time playing in my imaginary worlds, playing house, running around my yard and neighborhood, playing with an assortment of polly pockets and brats dolls, building with legos, playing hop-scotch and going to the park. Of course those activities are still relevant in children's lives, but those activities have technology as a competitor now.
I'm curious what the results would be if you went up to children with a jumprope in one hand and a game on an iPad in the other...which one they would choose to play with? We can't blame children for being consumed by technology because technology is so cool! I'm sure if smart phones and tablets became popular when I was in elementary school I would've been consumed by them too, they're amazing devices! These amazing devices are taking away from the youth though. They are great devices to have, but at what age?
My first phone was a flip phone the summer before 8th grade. I see children who look like they are 5 years old with iPhones. It scares me to think about what the technology will be like when I have children because I don't want them consumed by it at such a young age. I want my future kids to play, imagine and create. I want them to build forts, play with fake kitchen sets, doll houses and toy cars. Like I said, those toys and activities ARE still relevant and kids DO still play with them, create and imagine. That hasn't fully been taken away from them yet because kids will always want to play, create and imagine. Technology just may be taking their focus away from that sometimes.
As much as it hurts to step on legos I would rather step on my children's lego mess than see them with their eyes glued to a video game or iPad. I too find myself being consumed by technology every single day, but I am at that age where even if there was no technology I probably wouldn't have interest in playing with dolls and action figures anyway. Children are in a stage of their life where they are extremely playful. I wish that technology wasn't relevant in their lives so they could fully embrace their years of being able to be a kid and play. Once they outgrow that stage and become more of an adolescent then technology should start to become more relevant to them.
