Today my boss was discribing watching her two year old granddaughter examine some new handmedown toys. She was amazed that the first thing the little girl did was look for a button that made noise or an on switch to make the toy work..and this got me to thinking: has technology made kids smarter (a two year old knowing the basics of how to make a toy work) or is it taking away their imagination (they have to rely on batteries to have fun?)
Keep in mind, when I was growing up computers were just becoming the new thing and there were already parent activist groups complaining that tv and game systems were rotting our brains and making us fat, so is the idea that electronic toys killing imaginations that far of a stretch or just the next logical step that follows brain rot and getting huge? Or since a child has to figure out how something works, or how to get a toy to make a noise again does it mean that this new generation of toys is helping or hindering? I'm sure there are studies supporting both sides but maybe it really is a case by case basis. Maybe it really has to do on how the parent interracts with the child and toy.
Or maybe I am starting to just get old? I'm probably going to start telling long random stories with no point and tell everyone how in my day I walked to school in the snow uphill both ways. Now hand me my cane so I can shake it angrily at those young people and their loud hip hop music.
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