Little Brains Being Captured By Electronics

Want an example why the culture of the old world in which we have lived is dying. I just read a news blurb from an educational non-profit research group that approximately 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet on at least a weekly basis in the United States. The little ones are becoming robots, I think. The days of running outside and playing, learning the natural world seem to be a distant thing of the past for most children. I wonder if childhood as it has been defined in the past is disintegrating as small children engage in "adult" activities as much or more as the traditional childhood ones.

If the little ones do not have enough of the experiences of childhood, will they be different as adults than we are? Teens have already been altered by their electronic/techno addiction and are far different from kids of previous generations. But now the smallest of kids are trading their Barbie dolls and sports games for i phones and computers. Will missing those unique and imaginative kid learning /play experiences make the next generation a more robotic and less creative one?

This study also shows that TV is the main activity of kids, with video the biggest attraction for them. Most small children today spend at least three hours a day watching television, and television use among preschoolers is the highest it has been in the past eight years. Of the time that children spend on all types of media, television accounts for 47% of it. No doubt heavy TV watching encourages other electronic media use, including the internet.

I remember being told by pediatricians to not let my daughter watch a Tv until after age two, as it interferes with normal brain development at that age. Yet, often parents today use the Tv as a baby-sitting device, invading the small brains of their infants and toddlers with a medium beyond their understanding.

Is all the electronic media use by undeveloped brains good or bad? I do not know, but think it will definitely make this generation different from those of the past. One absolute essential for small children is heavy socialization with peers. yet small kids today are forsaking much of that in favor of phones, TV, the internet and other electronic devices. I have noticed that even when small kids are "playing" with each other, they are often more engaged with their electronics than with other kids. The smallest kids parallel play that way in the earliest years, but it disappears when they learn socialization skills. Now the parallel play is extended years beyond the old level.

Kids are learning to relate to their electronics faster and better than to other humans. I find that a little disturbing. Do you?