By Fatma AlKhaja (@fay_alkhaja)
This month, I decided to step out of the office and discuss a topic that has been on my mind for quite some time now.
I was born in the 80’s, and I must say I had FUN as a child. Everything we did was family oriented. We had weekly outdoor outings with the family. The family included cousins, second cousins, grandparents, uncles, etc. We also visited family friends weekly and that was always spent by us kids being outdoors either cycling in the garden, pretending to have an adventure, make up fantasy stories, have imaginary friends, be different people, etc. At the end of the day, we sit down and have a nice home cooked meal.
Today, our kids do not know who are their cousins or extended families. Their friends practically live in ‘facebook’, ‘twitter’, and other social network platforms. I do not deem these networks, but I still believe that everything should have its proper place. It is unfortunate that a family outing today is a room full of people, with each individual having their heads down and looking at their phones.
Where did all the activities go? I rarely see kids outdoors and by outdoors I mean in the ‘fresh air’. If you do see them outdoors, they are always accompanied by a huge scowl on their faces, ready to have a tantrum any moment because they are missing out on their precious ‘game’, or ‘social’ time.
I was home one day and my youngest sister had our cousins over. They were all between 5 and 10 years old. As I passed by them, I glanced at them and noticed that there was an eerie type of quietness in that room. One was on a Gameboy, the other on the PlayStation, and the youngest was flipping through stuff. An older person stood next to me and while shaking his head said, ‘kids, nowadays… they do not know how to have fun.’
Has the world become so technological that we have minimized kids’ ability to creatively think and fantasize on their own without resorting to the Internet? Or are we now living in a world where a parent can rely on how his//her child grows up or behaves without their involvement? The world has become demanding and more expensive. Today, both parents work full-time. They come back home and rarely have the time and energy to spend with their children and if they do take them out its done by taking them to a mall, dropping them in a play area while they drink coffee, and be by themselves.
A kid wants to spend time with their parents after they return home and what they do is hand them a console or turn on the TV and tell them to watch it until they are free to spend some time with them.
A parent is not that actively involved anymore nor is a school in this picture. School trips today are going to malls, eating out at a fast food place, and again malls. Their visits are not educational anymore where they take them to a zoo, aquarium, safari, museum, etc. Again, the teachers are dropping them off at the play area while they sit amongst themselves drinking coffee.
Are parents not bothered because they believe that kids are already learning everything on the Internet? Or are they so bombarded with work and a hectic life that they do not have the time or energy to be more involved.
I do not see kids run anymore. I do not see them cycle in the neighborhood anymore. When you step into a toy store, you will find all the kids crowding the gaming area rather than the actual ‘toys’ section. Boys do not go for the cars, dinosaurs, and soldiers they can play with and girls do not carry a Barbie or BratZ doll anymore.
We have got 10 year old girls more concerned about their appearance and who they like. A room filled with posters of latest movie stars and musicians. Whatever happened to our innocent children?
In 2009, I visited ‘The Physics Museum’ in Japan. The museum was filled with adults, but the astonishing part was that it also had the same amount of kids. I was absolutely amazed that every physical concept they explained had a miniature version of it as a toy for kids to understand, learn, and have fun.
They simply were not just having fun, but they were also learning. Now, my question is: what are we doing wrong?
Sail eMagazine’s 20th Issue – November 2011
Here we start – Art of Living 101 – Beyond Inspiration
Blunders of a Wannabe Entrepreneur – Just Another Undergrad – Society of Tomorrow
Too Blunt for Words – To The Point – Words, Observations, and Ramblings
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Great ending question! Beautiful perspective.
A great topic which requires further discussion. Oral traditions should not be replaced by tech junk
Thank you both for your feedback! I'd love to discuss this further XD
I observe the same thing in my own family. Parents are to be blamed here too because we are role models for children as they imitate us.
Our family time often looks like that: Mama with her laptop, Baba with his iphone and a 3 year old child with his ipad. When children see their parents preoccupied with laptops, phones, TV, PlayStation – they learn the same thing.
And the scariest thing is, children may feel like those gadgets are more important to the parents than the child… They may feel (rightly so in some cases) neglected, which in turn can result in destructive and naughty behavior as a means to attract parents' attention. That's why I need to make it a rule to never use laptop in front of my children.
An increasing body of universities study signifies that video gaming strengthens originality, decision-making and opinion. The precise positive aspects are broad ranging, from improved hand-eye co-ordination in surgeons to imagination changes that improve night driving potential.People who played out action-based video and computer video games established judgements 25% much faster when compared with other people without sacrificing accuracy, in line with a survey. Without a doubt, the most adept gamers will make decisions and do some thing about them up to 6-8 times a second—four times more rapidly as compared to most people, other researchers discovered. Furthermore, practiced game gamers are going to pay focus to above 6 issues at once without getting unclear, compared with the 4 that someone can typically bear in mind, stated University of Rochester scientists. The scientific studies were conducted by themselves of the companies that provide video and computer online games