SOURCE: http://bailey505.tumblr.com/post/127045973365
Does anyone besides me worry that electronics, especially handheld electronics, may be changing the nature of childhood and that these changes, in turn, may potentially alter the character of our future generations?
Does anyone worry that it may be a bad thing that kids no longer spend their childhoods exploring, riding bikes, making up their own games, finding their own entertainment, patiently waiting for the things they want? I realize that not all of us had the same childhood, even back in the 60s - but a lot of us did.
What if a childhood spent exploring is what makes us curious?
What if a childhood spent running around the neighborhood and riding bikes is what teaches us to enjoy exercise and personal fitness?
What if a childhood spent making up our own games is what teaches us creativity and imagination? What if policing those games is what teaches us fairness, justice, and how to compromise?
What if a childhood spent having to find/make our own entertainment is the main thing driving us towards reflective pursuits such as reading or thinking?
What if patiently waiting for the things we wanted (remember, in the days before VCR tapes, waiting a year or more before your favorite movies finally debuted on television?) is how we learn patience and how to postpone gratification?
By way of disclosure, I am actually old enough to grumble about "kids these days" ... but I'm not going to do it. I don't think kids have changed. They're still born energetic, active, curious, imaginative, spontaneous. I do think the world in which they are growing in has changed, in ways almost too enormous to fully appreciate. Is it such a leap to wonder how this may result in generations of future adults who possess characteristics, biases, and priorities like none we've ever encountered before?
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