Reports have come in that kids are dis-engaging from their surroundings, opting to be lost in the hypnotic world of the tablet where they can speak to avatars and live their life through a portal rather than interacting with the world outside. These addictive tablets come in the flavours of Apple, Samsung, Asus, Acer and many more...
"I'm all for children interacting with technology, it is essential for them to do so now and essential in the age to come, but we still need our kids to be engaging directly with other human beings."
Okay, OK I'm not talking about any tablet that you would swallow and in truth, I am an advocate for useful technologies, but in having viewed a kid on the London Underground totally transfixed by the game he was playing (and he not being the first) I noticed his quietness, his overweightness (a new word) and his only communication to his mother being when he made some sort of ug ug noise to communicate how far he'd got in the game. Of course his mother wasn't vaguely interested, but I think she was glad that he wasn't worrying her with anything else. |
I fear that kids will become recluse and eventually socially inept adults, even physical weaklings as they continue to live their lives through tablets. They need to get involved with the culture of the world as its live and happening. Yes, it is good that a child can research a painting for his/her art homework or find immediate information on a certain subject matter, but when the art gallery is only a few miles away of a sighting, the live experience is incomparable by far.
IK