I have had
a different childhood… a good one yes, but different still. Mostly because our
VCR was broken by the time I was old enough to watch cartoon movies and we’re
not the kind of family who gets things fixed when they break down, but anyways…
I‘m grateful for that coz it kinda changed my world forever.
I spent
most of time in the garden with my cousins, playing and running; or played with
my dolls, which some people would call silly, but I would like to think that it
was something that allowed my sense of imagination to strengthen and my
creativity to grow at a very young age. In
summer, I don’t think I saw the inside of my house much. I played three
different sports and spent most of the day at the club. I was alone most of the
day and while some people thought it unsafe or even pathetic, I saw it as
something that increased my independence and my ability to make friends easily,
which I did, and still do to this day.
When the
time came for us to run for Agami, what we did (my cousins and I) was actually
run for the beach, for the bikes and the racket and the street playing.
We stayed up late playing cards or group games of some kind… it was the best
time of my life. Yes, we watched some recorded cartoon videos on TV (Pink
Panther was it at the time); but all it consumed was a mere hour
of the day when we were having breakfast or late dinner, and it didn’t mean
that much to us anyway. I remember our “fights” being over who would hit the
shower first after the beach or who would get the first turn playing with the
hose in the garden. I look back on those days and could safely say without sounding
corny; “those were the days…”
Ten years
later, I have three nephews/nieces and my older cousins have children of their
own as well and I’ve worked with children on several occasions and in different
places. And boy is their childhood completely and utterly different from mine!
Kids fight
over iPADS these days!! That piece of high tech tablet that is – supposedly – meant
to be used by busy people who need to do work almost all day and have to send
emails on the go. I find it very hard to believe, when my 18-month-old niece screams
for the iPad and the name of the game she plays on it. Boys watch too many
cartoons all the time and I have to say, it is making their imagination grow
wild…just the very wrong kind of wild. They have gone more and more aggressive,
intolerant and wildly uncontrollable – which is also a result of the style
of what they’re watching, not just the quantity.
Hours of
watching TV not only hurt the kids’ eyes but destroys their ability to analyze
and think properly. They are constantly on the receiving end of something
audio-visual, they don’t think and they don’t move. They stop creating,
they stop “making” things; and it’s inevitable, the brain has a certain
capacity and when you fill it with movies and games that are ready and don’t
require much action from them, children can’t possibly take in more, let alone get
something out. And that’s for TV, imagine now the effects of computers
and laptops and iPads on them, which are all easily accessible
and kid-friendly not just user friendly. It is not even advisable for adults to
use them for long hours, so how about those little fragile creatures that are
our children? I bet it’s not at all good for them, nor healthy…nor even fun!
Yes, I do
not think it’s fun. How can you compare running around in the sun, playing
ball or hide and seek, jumping rope, swimming, tumbling, climbing and sliding;
with merely watching 2D characters driving fast, blowing up buildings, fighting
bad guys or even acting or talking silly and cute?! And how can playing 2D
games of babies, robots, cars or racers, moving them around using two fingers
or even one be more exciting or challenging than building blocks or mechanical parts,
making sand castles, fishing plastic fish with a plastic rod, or even playing
with dolls! I swear, even dressing Barbie up is better for kids than moving a
shapeless character up and down inside a screen with your finger… at least they’ll
be using some creativity.
I feel
sorry for this generation really... We’re depending on them to make the economy
stronger, and the environment healthier; and to build this country almost from scratch,
while all we’re doing is feeding their brains with junk! I wonder how they’re
gonna make it.
…food for
thought.