I hope the title of this post caught your attention. I hope the title even got you stirred up so much that you actually begin to think about your kids, your friends kids, or even your future children. This has been on my mind lately and it see it almost daily. What am I referring to? Plain and simple: technology and how it is robbing today's kids of important parts of their childhood.
It's bad enough with teenagers in high school and even adults that can't seem to set that phone down, but to see elementary school and even pre-school kids with their attention zapped by hours on end with a tiny little thing known as a smart phone, iPad, and even a hand-held gaming devices pains me inside.
When I was a kid, none of this technology existed, except for video games (and I will get into that a little later), so I didn't have the opportunity to have my attention stolen by such things. I spent my summer days racing my brand new Huffy bike over hills, through the woods, and even down the street. I climbed trees to the very top and gave some on-lookers the sting of fear. I played soccer with trees for goals, I had a tree swing that I spent hours on, I built tee-pees out of giant branches and old blankets, I invented games only to have them banned by my parents because someone got hurt or something got broken. I raced my Radio Flyer wagon with the neighborhood kids, I built forts out of logs, flew kites with ease, raced remote control cars with my friends, played hide-and-seek until dark. I imagined I was a battleship captain at war with pirates, a lone knight who conquered castles and kings, a brave soldier who fought many wars, and even the hero of the football team who scored the winning touchdown when all hope was lost. That is only a taste of what I did in the summer. All of this before I was thirteen.
Like any other kid, the technology still drew me. I grew up playing the original Nintendo, Atari, Super Nintendo, and the N64. I was able to do this because I had cousins who owned these systems and once a week we would go to my grandparents and play them with each other. Now my parents were very strict and didn't allow us to have any of these systems because they saw something that we kids didn't. They saw how little effort it took to play and how much precious time was lost into those games. I remember one time crying and screaming at my mom at the fact that all my friends had video games and I didn't. She didn't budge but in a calming way reminded me that not everyone can have everything and that I may understand why down the road.
It took me awhile, but I had to experience things on my own. We didn't get a game system until 2004 when in was given to us as a gift. Now my parents weren't ones to refuse gifts, so they told us we could keep it but were limited to 15 minutes a day. Then when I was 15 and in high school when I bought my first system with my own money (there's a long story behind that one, but that's for another time). At one point I owned four video games systems. Now I only own one and I hardly ever use it. The reason for this is because video games have lost their allure for me. I look back on my life and my childhood and see that my parent's didn't rob me of something cool, but they gave me a chance to imagine, explore, see the world in all the beauty God put into it and really be a kid. I look at now and seeing all my friends grow up and begin to graduate college, get real jobs, and get married, I know how precious time is to be with them and so I try to spend as much as I can hanging out with them.
That's why it pains me when I see 3-6 year-olds hidden behind a smart phone or iPad, navigating it with ease and given no restriction on it at all. Or 7-12 year glued to the screen so as to get out of their parent's hair or even sitting in the same room and having no human interaction because they are communicating through this technology.
Don't get me wrong, this technology is wonderful and keeps us connected as well as makes our lives easier, but sometimes we abuse it and miss what really matters. Also, I am not telling anyone how to parent their child and I have no place to seeing as I don't have kids of my own. But I realized now the true value of not having this stuff as a kid and for me I am glad my parents refused me that privilege. My little sisters are a prime example. I almost never let them play games on my phone, and sure we let them watch a movie a day and even sometimes they play video games with us, but I see Lydia with her nose buried in books, opening her imagination. I see Hannah playing with her dinosaurs and bringing them to life. I see them both excited to ride bikes, play basketball (Lydia's favorite sport), and go outside and play, not even caring that they can't play video games. They are being children and living their childhood that so many kids are missing out on.
I even admit that I spent a lot of time on video games throughout high school and even early on in college. Not all of those times were wasted because I enjoyed my friend's company and made many memories of our greatest games, but we still did other things and realized that having human interaction was way more important than just clicking a mouse or pressing a controller button (most of the time). I also admit that sometimes I need to put the phone down too, because if it doesn't start with an almost college grad or parent, how are today's kids going to take a break? Life is too short to miss out on what really matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment