“I’m just staying home tonight, getting lost in that hopeless little screen”
—Leonard Cohen
The latest example of “woe unto this generation” is from Nate Hanson at HuffPo: The Last Generation of Kids That Played Outside
This brings me to the startling truth: If we allow the current generation to be satisfied thinking within a 9.7‑inch box, we’ll rob them of the curiosity and creativity that it took to build that very device they’re holding.
If we don’t remove easy entertainment from our children, they’ll never learn to create their own.
I don’t know what the answer is for your family and your children — but we must be drastic. It’s time to stop saying, “But it’s just easier to plop them down with the iPad.” Or, “They’ll throw a fit if they don’t get to play with my iPhone.”
Even Steve Jobs, the visionary behind the iPad, didn’t let his kids use the iPad. He pushed them to play outside, read books and be fascinated with good conversation.
Since two of my three iPad owning kids are currently playing outside at the moment (and I often have a hard time getting them to come in at night) color me a tad skeptical on this one.
Really, while I think my kids (and, for that matter, myself) spend too much times with screens far too often, this ongoing notion that we are doomed, doomed, doomed and that kids never play outside, etc. is just so very tiresome.
I have always disliked laments about the “good ol’ days” and all this hand-wringing over screens is just the latest in a long line of such concerns dating back to the ancient Greeks.
(Seriously, how many times has this exact thesis been raised about television since, say, the 1950s?).
