With a plethora of toys and new distractions from the holiday, including new Duplos, remote control vehicles, a new doll and more— my children should have had no problem entertaining themselves this evening. At five and three, they have more toys than I had combined in my life. This is the world in which they are growing up, where “things” multiply on toy shelves. My daughter can build an amazing farm in Minecraft, and my son can find the apps he desires on the iPad. Technology invades their lives and intertwines in much of what they do.
So, are their minds blinded by the blinking lights and buttons to push?
Sometimes, yes, they are sucked in more than I am comfortable admitting. Yet, some of the “toys” they love best are the simple ones. The largest percentage of this evening’s entertainment for my children— was playing in two empty clothes baskets. Like the cardboard box, these simple baskets invoked serious imagination. My children were riding in a bus, trapped in a cage, a turtle in a shell and more.
Technology does not kill imagination. My children gather inspiration from the digital worlds they visit, whether on a television show, a story-app, or in an imaginary digital world like Minecraft. But, they also gather similar stories from the books that line our shelves. They read and absorb so much from pages that do not interact other than through their own imaginations.
Play Doh, cardboard boxes, pipe cleaners, paper and markers, and even laundry baskets are still passports to creativity. So, despite the fears of technology ruining the lives our our children, I want to venture the hypothesis that this next generation will be okay. My childhood was never without a computer, never without friends with video-game systems. In our generation, we now have doctors and lawyers. We have computer engineers, chemists, and architects. Despite the fact we started chatting on the internet before “texting” existed, we can write complete sentences. We can communicate with our peers without a screen in front of us.
The children of today will be okay.
What are the fears society keeps expressing about technology in the lives of our children? Do you believe the technology in their lives will bring more harm or more good?