We’re living in the digital age. We live in a time where we can look up basically anything on the internet, including hours of entertainment. While technology has been amazing in some ways, it’s also caused extreme changes in our youth and the way they see the world.
When I was a child, my mother limited my brother and my screen time. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays we couldn’t have any. That meant no television, computer, game boy, GameCube (shout out to all the 90’s/early 2000’s kids out there), or any other piece of technology with a screen on those 3 days. On all the other days, our screen time was limited to 30 minutes a day. You may wonder how we survived without hours of Dora and tablets galore. The answer: we did everything else.
We hated the limitation then, but looking back I got out of the house 10 times more than your average child today does. I played with barbies and horses and dolls and Legos instead of Angry birds and Candy Crush. I read books and wrote stories. My brother and I pretended, played pranks on each other and drove my parents insane. My neighborhood friends and I created a bike club and stomped in pits of mud. We played.
Today’s kids are being controlled by apps, tv shows and movies. They’re more excited about the new episode of their favorite shows than the bugs and landscape outside waiting to be explored. It’s so so sad.
At Christmas we visited my little cousins and the little ones watched Disney channel and played on their tablets all night instead of playing with their new puppy or talking to us. Also, some of the shows they were watching had horrible messages about racism and technology use that no child should be shown with a laughing crowd. There were even moments in some of the shows where kids would freak out about wifi being down or their phones not working at completely inappropriate times. My brother and I looked at each other in horror at what we were seeing. We asked what we’ve done to this next generation, and why this behavior was being presented for young children to laugh at.
There are so many pros to technology. It lets us connect, it lets us share ideas and news (aka this magazine), but children don’t have use for that. They need the exercise and the imagination. They need to learn to think for themselves, not just reciprocate what the latest Disney show told them to think. Kids are malleable, and the things they experience as children will effect how they think and feel for the rest of their lives.
We have to make a better effort to let our children live outside and with imagination.
I’m not a parent myself, but I was a child made from trees and mud and books and pretending. I was made from my own imagination and not the games downloaded on a tablet. I lived, and I believe that today’s children are being robbed of that. Kids might be quieter when they’re sitting in the couch with their tablets, but they’re not learning or developing or experiencing anything.
It’s because of this that I look back at the frustration I had with my mother for limiting my technology use with appreciation. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the motivation to do outside that she gave me. It allows them to be free and creative, which is something you can’t put a price on.
