I've been wondering why. Why are kids not playing outside? Why does the neighbourhood now seem like an adult only neighbourhood?
It's the lack of childhood kids these days are having.
Now, I'm going to have to compare my childhood to the ones children have nowadays so I can truly show you what I mean.
When I was young, I played outside with my friends. We'd visit each other's houses, ride our bikes around the neighbourhood, wander down to the beach to play at the park or go exploring, and we'd sell feijoas or lemons on the side of the road to earn a bit of extra pocket money.
Kids these days don't do that. Now, it's all technology. Kids can find their friends online, text them, facebook them, tweet them even. There's no need to walk over to your friends house to see if they want to come over and play. Kids can just text their friends and get a reply almost instantly.
I guess my issue is not just with technology though. It's the age children are given the technology.
I know a young boy who has a cellphone, and he was given it when he was eight. His younger brother uses their mother's phone - the younger brother began using it when he was three. I was given my first cellphone at the age of eleven or twelve (I can't really remember). Even then, it took months of pestering my parents, arguing that I needed one in case of emergencies. It was only when I started doing road patrol at primary school that they finally gave in.
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| Toddler with iPod. |
Schools adding iPads to the list of stationary also make me confused. Why on earth would you put and iPad on a primary school stationary list? It doesn't make sense.
If they need to do art, they can use crayons and paper. I did. There's no need to use an art app.
If they need to do some writing, they can use a pencil and an exercise book. If kids are encouraged to use keyboards, what's going to happen if the battery dies in their fancy iPad? Without learning to use a pen or pencil, we may lose the skill of handwriting.
Now, I'm not saying having technology is bad. It's actually a good thing. We are more connected than ever by Facebook, Google+, Twitter and all those other social networking sites. We have all the information we could possibly want, right at our fingertips, thanks to Wikipedia. I never had that when I started school, but I wish I did.
And yes, there are more pro's to the Modern Technology and Kids debate. It helps them develop essential motor skills late in life. But what ever happened to using toys? My generation played with building blocks, and we developed our motor skills just fine. Learning to read? We had our parents, or when they were busy, we had the Leapfrog LeapPad electronic toy to help.
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| Leapfrog LeapPad |
Personally I feel like kids these days have no childhood, but I guess part of me is just sad to see every toy I played with as a kid being displayed in a museum (no joke, there's a whole glass display of toys I used to play with). There are pro's and con's to the modern childhood, but I guess it's the same with every childhood. My parents probably thought I had no childhood, compared to theirs.
By the by, we just have to accept that kids as young as three years old are playing with iPhones and iPads, and perhaps missing out on things that once made childhood fun.
What are your thoughts?
