Silly Rabbit, Technology’s For Kids!

One of the biggest milestones in my young, 90’s life was my first computer.

It was this big, white monster of a monitor with a CD-ROM drive and a “hard floppy disc” drive in the giant computer tower, and it came in one of those Gateway boxes that always reminded me of a cow (the black and white print). It was way cooler than those black-and-green-graphics computers with real floppy discs that I played Word Munchers on in Kindergarten. I spent my time on it playing Learning Company games and, a few years later, IMing and e-mailing my best friends.

Us Millennials grew up in a strange technological setting – we are old enough to remember Zach Morris-style cell phones and a time when having a computer in your house was a big deal, but we’re young enough to easily learn the new technological trends.

It’s not that I don’t like using all these crazy new contraptions – and, let’s be honest, it’s getting more and more interesting to see what Apple will come up with next – but part of me fears for the generations after mine.

Researchers have argued that media makes kids mature – or want to be mature – at a younger age. I submit that Hollywood isn’t the only culprit. Silicon Valley, you’re part of the problem, too.

Everything around them has become unnecessarily technological. I understand that pay phones are a rarity, but where’s your seven year old going without you that he requires a specially-designed cell phone? Can’t a stuffed animal just be a stuffed animal, not the toy little girls throw aside after they find that code to play with a virtual version of their stuffed animal online? Do kids in elementary school really need a Facebook profile and their own iPods, digital cameras and laptops?

Sure, when we were growing up, we could play with a Nano or a Furby, but that was the most technological my toys really got. I didn’t own a cell phone until freshman year of high school, and I only got one then because I was going to school 30 minutes away. I didn’t get a texting plan until college, and my first smartphone came just this past winter. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I would still rather buy CDs than download off iTunes. And I would never buy a Kindle.

The competition to be cool plays a big part in this rush on technology – the popular kids have the latest iPod model and a fun cell phone and whatever – but how did that need for kids to use technology so young come about in the first place?

It seems like this all might be pretty detrimental. According to a recent New York Times article, generation gaps are appearing between children only a few years apart. A baby born today is going to have a totally different technological experience than his three-year-old sister.

I don’t doubt it. And I don’t doubt the hypothesis that this increasingly technological world will make them better multitaskers, but give them shorter attention spans.

What I do doubt is the claim that all this technology will make kids more creative. The same group of researchers that blames the media for kids maturing faster also says that too much “screen time” stunts intellectual growth and creativity. Wouldn’t that mean more technology equals less creativity?

I am all for teaching children about beneficial technology and letting them use technological advances to their benefit, but kids should still  be able to just be kids. They shouldn’t have social media profiles, and they don’t need their own cell phones.

Being a kid is about things being simple. When technology complicates things, that’s when it becomes a problem rather than an asset.

Photo Credit: myklroventine

Author: Angela Stefano – You can tell a little something about a girl based on what’s in her purse. I have my iPod, a planner, a notebook and pens, my camera, and the “Cocktails for Dummies” pocket edition. Oh, and a lint comb, gum, and a lot of makeup I never use.