My family and I were eating breakfast in a New Hampshire hotel this morning. Behind us was a family with a one or two year old.
As we had a casual conversation with the elderly couple next to us... they remarked about how small the little boy behind us was. The really sad thing, though, was his entertainment.
He sat, eating his breakfast with his family... but his eyes were fixed totally on a small tablet with a stand sitting just before his face.
So rather than interact with his parents... his neighbors... or view the news happening on the television behind him... he had a personally-customized experience that isolated him from the world. Not to mention that he's at a hotel... so he is away from home and exploring the world!
What is sad to me is the suggestion of where it leads. It may be that this was a one-off. Maybe he won't be raised by this device...
But the odds and our culture suggest that this is how he will spend much or most of his childhood. Isolated from others and alone. Being taught that the world not only revolves around him... but you control the world... and entertainment is the chief end of man!
Ok. Maybe I'm over-stating a little bit.
But the next generations' obsession with screens, rocketing depression and anxiety, isolation and unwillingness to socialize, etc... It is extremely tragic.
Let's stop the tide!