Doing Battle with Technology
I’m not sure how old you are, my reader, but I’m old enough that when I was a kid we did not have video games in the house, or cable television, or VCRs – let alone a DVD player. When I got home from school, I went outside and played hard until it was time to come inside for dinner.
When I was a little older, my dad got Pong. That was thrilling for much longer than it would be for any child of these times. A little later on he got an Apple IIc and I played little games like Lemonade Stand and Pioneer, but they took a VERY long time to play since there was no hard drive on that computer. Plus, it was all text-based. About the same time, my friend Kathleen and her family got Intelevision, so that became our new big electronics wonder.
Kids today have wii and xbox 360 and MP3 players and cell phones that take high-res pictures and can access the internet. They expect all of these electronics to be given to them, to be maintained. When they come home from school, the streets of my neighborhood are nearly as quiet as the hours when they are in school. These kids are busy playing with their video games inside, slowly becoming more and more susceptible to Vitamin D deficiency.
My own daughter is only five and she is already hardwired. She likes to get online and play on Cartoon Doll Emporium and WebKinz and Star Fall. I let her play an hour here and there, but certainly not every day. Generally she can choose an hour online or an hour of television. She fights me tooth and nail and I can only imagine it will get worse as she gets older and sees what the other kids have.
I am up against her father, as well. He allows her to be in front of the television or on her VTech or on the internet for most of the time she is with him. He even bought her a laptop of her own. I have plans to get her a computer, but as I said before she is FIVE! She does not need her own just yet.
Am I fighting a losing battle? Are all of our children destined to get fat and pasty-faced as they sit inside with the newest tech toys? It does not help that I am a techie myself. I love the newest gadgets as much as the next person. I just know that 10 or 20 years ago I had what felt like a lot more free time, due to a lack of technology in my life.
Posted on July 4th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Gadgets - Toys - Technology
Both my daughters use Cartoon Doll Emporium (CDE) constantly. It is one of the safer sites out there, so I approve. But oh how I miss the days when you would just open the door and say “go play!”.
I agree! I want so much to just let her in the yard alone to play, or to even roam the neighborhood. I can’t, though. I just can’t. There are too many real dangers out there and we live on a corner lot, in a nice neighborhood that is in actuality all too close to a conjested suburb of Tampa. Kids get taken here, and that is a fact.
I have to be outside with my daughter and all too often, we just both end up inside so I can cook or do laundry or my online work.
What a different world in which we live.