I have no idea what I’m going to be like as a parent. I’d like to think that I’ll be someone my kids can confide in. I’d also like to think that I’ll be fair to them. And I would hate to think that I would give them an iPad rather than go out into the garden for a game of catch.
But yet, this is something that seems to be happening more and more in households with young kids.
Like I said, I have no idea what I’m going to be like as a parent and I can’t imagine how busy and stressful that role is. Therefore I have no real-life experience to back up my argument that I think kids using iPads is a sad indicator of the society we live in.
I realise that it’s impossible not to introduce children to technology sooner rather than later and chances are that soon iPads will be the only thing they need for school, but I feel like the traditional means of having fun have been completely lost.
Children no longer play in the garden, they play the Playstation. They turn on rather than going out. They ask for iPads on their sixth birthday, not Barbie dolls or board games.
Maybe I find it hard to get my head around it because I belong to a different generation. Or perhaps it’s because when I was younger, my parents always made sure that I went outside rather than sitting in, in front of the television.
I know that the majority of kids that have iPads aren’t on them all day and that they are used for educational purposes (which I think is amazing and wholeheartedly embrace) but I have seen kids with their noses stuck to the screen for hours.
I have also read stories of kids accessing inappropriate content on the World Wide Web and running up bills while downloading apps and “free” games. Surely this is to be expected when there is such open access to these things?
In saying that, I have come to realise that using technology as a means of education or entertainment is necessary and that it’s not realistic to cut it out completely in this day and age. But I do think that nowadays there is a reliance on technology when there used to be a willingness to embrace activity.
That, I have a problem with.
I think it is wrong to rely solely on technology to keep kids occupied and I would hate to think that going outside to play will become something that only my generation talks about, an activity that is no longer done but only spoken about.
After all, making a digital version of yourself go out and run about is only half as much fun as actually doing it. And that’s me, talking from experience.
