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| | Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?Page 1 of 2 (1, 2) | My son was home during Thanksgiving (he's 29) and we were going through his boxes of toys I had kept for him. We got to talking about present day toys and I related that I had been in a Walmart and in perusing the toy aisles, I noticed a plethora (like that word? hee hee) of toys that all had some computer/technology component. Such as stuffed animals that had a website to go with it or dolls that DO things. (Yes, I know, when I was a child the big thing for girls was a Chatty Cathy doll. But, I preferred my baby doll who didn't do anything.) It got me to wondering if having so many toys that have "set" ways to play with would be a detriment to developing a child's creativity and imagination.
Please keep in mind, I LOVE technology (I have my moments of being a tech-junkie, and I think the tech toys have their place but I get concerned about children that I know where ALL their toys are tech based, even toddlers. I saw on youtube a nine year old who is expert on Guitar Hero. It's amazing to watch but I was a little disconcerted about the amount of time he must have practiced to get that good at it. It had to have been hours and hours!
My sons had access to computers for most of their lives and they did play on them, but were limited in the amount of time. The rest of their free time was spent outdoors, or playing with things or creating things where they had to use their imagination. They developed their creativity and the use of technology and are making a living as graphic artists.
So the question is:
"Do you think that having MOSTLY toys with technology and/or a set way to play with them, are or are not a detriment to developing a child's creativity and imagination? | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 4:28:52 PM |
I saw on youtube a nine year old who is expert on Guitar Hero. It's amazing to watch but I was a little disconcerted about the amount of time he must have practiced to get that good at it. It had to have been hours and hours!
I wonder if he's ever picked up an actual guitar. Yes, I think it's a detriment. I also think it's generational and there are probably benefits that I don't see. But what do I know, I'm the mean mom who makes her kids go hiking in the woods when all their friends are home playing with their videogame consoles. =) | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 6:29:50 PM |
Yes, I think it's a detriment. I also think it's generational and there are probably benefits that I don't see. But what do I know, I'm the mean mom who makes her kids go hiking in the woods when all their friends are home playing with their videogame consoles. =)
My daughter is 21 now, in her last year of college. But, until she went to college, she went on all of the several camping trips I scheduled during the year: no phones, cell phones didn't work in the mountains, computers, faxes, tv. And she never complained.
She started learning computers in school at age 6. The kids no longer do math in their heads. Nor do they write well, and are, as a generation, extremely ill-equipped to handle the english language. It is a far different education than I had. And too much time sitting in front of a computer has resulted in an epidemic of obesity in our youth.
That said, I cannot say that the education she got is not preparing her, except for the language challenges, for her tomorrows. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 6:36:38 PM | "Do you think that having MOSTLY toys with technology and/or a set way to play with them, are or are not a detriment to developing a child's creativity and imagination?
I think that will depend upon whether the environment around the child stimulates their curiosity or not .
Whilst most of my generation were content to play with their clockwork toys in a sort of structured manner, I was always trying to find out how they worked...along with many other things around the house...I could take things apart ..just had trouble putting them back together working again...I did get better at it later in life..LOL!
Todays 'toys' including computer controls now appear in remote controlled undersea research, military weapons, and bomb disposal equipment, and the latest concept cars now feature a similar means of control..meaning us old fuddy duddies are going to really be in a quandary when it comes to using them!
And if you want to know just how much things have changed in a control cab..take a look inside some of the latest farm and heavy equipment these days..starts to resemble a 747 flight deck
Things have changed a lot over the past generations...how many women can still stitch a sampler at 8-10 years old as my grandmother did?...make all the clothing for a family as my mother had to during wartime?..or prepare meals from scratch?
How many boys today can build a wooden go cart from bits and pieces?..Make their own fishing line, play anything outside a structured sports environment and wearing all the equipment?..as most kids now are wrapped in cotton wool and kept close to home, is it any wonder they prefer to sit and play on computers in their bedrooms?
Yes in many cases, having toys that think for them, most kids will not exercise their imagination, but some will..and some will want to know how they work, along with wanting to improve them, or even create newer ideas for the upcoming generations.
The universe is unfolding as it should...no need to worry, even if we no longer understand it...LOL! | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 7:07:41 PM | | There is no reason why technology can't provide an imaginative child with a world of creative learning. It's pretty much like any other toy you would give a child....if a parent spends time talking about it and encouraging a child to learn, most any toy can be very beneficial. The damage seems to occur when children are given toys as a babysitter and adults don't spend enough time with them. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 7:53:17 PM | Technology blocks creativity? hmm...
* I read a book review on chapters (like amazon) that critically and methodically took apart a very popular teen book series and was startled to realize it had been written by my daughter!
* Her photography is on-line; she spends hours looking at other people's work - figuring out what worked and didn't.
* Short stories get posted to Quizilla where she and the community comment, praise and criticise.
* An afternoon with friends is likely to end with a video posted on YouTube. They enter video creation contests all the time... the giggles in our basement as they write scripts is awesome.
* She's scanning another friend's cartoon into photo-shop so she can edit and improve the graphics for her... and scheming to publish the year's collection for a christmas present next year.
* Her social life is run through Facebook, direct linked to her cell phone.
* She participated in an event this summer put on by Improv-Now... I think several hundred people spontaneously showed up in that park on a sunny afternoon.
* She won a Joker impersonation contest on Blog-TV.
* Sometimes moderates a forum and has made friends all over the world... has learned so much about politics and world events.
* Is building her own PC.
From what I've seen, technology isn't limiting creativity or critical thinking ... it is enhancing it. Finding time for school work is a different story. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 8:19:13 PM | I agree that technology can be used creatively and can enhance the creativity and critical thinking. It sounds as if your daughter is a teenager? It sounds as if she has a great parent! One who took the time to foster that side of personality when she was younger.
When my youngest was 12, he received a video camera that could take 1 second shots. He used the creativity that we had fostered during his childhood and made stop action animations. He is now a graphic designer making movies and working for an ad agency.
I'm more concerned about children who have so much technology at a young age, say before 10 years of age. | |
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HO2
| | Joined: 10/11/2008
Msg: 9 | |
| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 10:09:05 PM | I took an old toy down from the attic, fired it up, and asked the neighbor to bring his young son over.
He and his son looked in wonder and amazement as it ran. Then they asked me how it works.
It was a steam engine --you know the old low tech thing that made the industrial revolution possible.
And I almost forgot, it's 30 years old and still works like it did on day one.
http://www.toysteam.net/wid18final.wmv
Young kids need imagination, tinkering around, taking stuff apart, and time to play.
Erector sets, Lego blocks, and all that stuff sparks ideas and curiosity in young minds. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/8/2008 10:14:05 PM | Awesome post OP.....
My immediate thought is this....
We're taught at a very early age that the way to be healthy is by a 'balanced diet'......Back when we were growing up it was 'the 4 basic food groups'.
I feel that this theory should also be applied to kids at the age groups you're mentioning with the other things in life. Our kids are now reported to be the most obese of any generation due to unhealthy food diets. The same should possibly be considered concerning technology. A BALANCED DIET of technology mixed with other basic things like active play, REAL verses VIRTUAL toys, and real social interaction I think should be considered to prevent kids from becoming 'unhealthy' in other ways.
All children eventually gravitate toward what they're GOOD AT. This is where their 'passion' then comes from. And once they start going down a certain road of passion, it's a little hard to get them to stop. So, there WILL be those who's main love is technology. And I think it should be encouraged. I see nothing wrong if that it eventually becomes their passion.
From personal experience though, I've come to realize that if balance is not attempted at an early age for other things, then it's quite possible for one's once passion to actually become a NEMESIS later on in life......at which burn out occurs with maybe NO immediate options around......... And oddly enough, as an example, it's why most parents of musicians are always nagging them to get a college education to FALL BACK ON just in case they don't become the next Jon Bon Jovi!! It sounds as if somebody is not supporting their PASSION....but in the end.....it's about BALANCE.
Technology is GREAT for kids. But if not tempered, they become kids who are tuned out at times, wildly texting faster than most of us adults can talk while they're sitting at the dinner table. The PARENTS are already proving that they can't even get a decent RELATIONSHIP going from the wonder that was supposed to bring us all closer together....TECHNOLOGY and the INTERNET...... Are our children going to be any different??
I think I need to go put in I-Robot now........
thanks again OP...great post | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 12:24:14 AM | Well, when I was a young teen I drove my parents crazy by sitting on the phone for hours talking to my school friends. I watched a lot of TV with my brother. We rode our bikes and we played in the street with the neighbours' kids and read a lot of books. I sang soulfully to Tapestry and Cat Stevens and James Taylor, wrote to my diary, played with and made clothes for my Barbie (up to 16 - how embarrassing), played piano, tennis, basketball, learned ballet, hung at the beach and (as I went to an all-girls' school) went to dances to meet boys.
Now, my young teen daughter talks to her school friends on MSN, endlessly redesigns her MySpace page, takes lots of photos with her digital camera and uploads and photoshops them, texts until the wee hours, downloads enormous amounts of music onto her iPod, watches a minimal amount of TV, draws pictures of clothes she wants, writes in her diary, rides her bike, plays with neighbourhood friends, reads books, plays guitar, netball, tennis, takes dancing classes, swims competitively, hangs at the beach and goes to school to meet boys.
Nothing really has changed.. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 9:09:28 AM | Just a quick note about Guitar Hero, since it was mentioned earlier. Guitar Hero doesn't teach people how to play a guitar. It teaches people how to play Guitar Hero. If they decide that they like the guitar and want to learn how to play a real one, Guitar Hero is actually harmful. Not only do people have to deal with all the problems of learning how to play a musical instrument, but they first have to unlearn techniques that they acquired from Guitar Hero.
As to the point at hand, it's like everything -- those things we have invented to make our lives easier can either overwhelm us and take over our ability to do things in the 'real world', or they can be something that adds to our real world experience. I think of the world of information and knowledge that is available to pre-teen children now, simply by typing a few ideas into a Google browser. It can be a spark that ignites ideas or it can be the warm glow that soothes the frustration of inactivity. And since pre-teens rarely make decisions well involving things to do with the future, it's up to the adults in their lives to help them with it. Choices. Always more choices.
cdn guy | |
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HO2
| | Joined: 10/11/2008
Msg: 13 | |
| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 10:20:52 AM | The original members of the band KISS, were soundly beaten in Guitar Hero,
playing their own song, by some of their own children and friends.
A band that played the song 100's of times live in concert didn't win a friendly contest.
Technology is a tool. Period. It doesn't inherently automatically make things easier. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 10:39:56 AM | | I think the "technology" we need to worry most about is fast food and over-processed food as it has brought on an epidemic of obesity in this country from empty calories. Children and their parents are getting fatter and fatter. That is what we should be worried about. Anything that stimulates the mind has more positive attributes than negative and can lead to careers in technology, where the money is. | |
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HO2
| | Joined: 10/11/2008
Msg: 15 | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 2:25:32 PM | I have a 7yr old granddaughter that reads at a 5th grade level. She's always had computers around. Yet, she is the most creative of the 7 grandchildren I have. She is also the most inquisitive of them all. I don't see technology as limiting their creativity but adding to the endless possibilities.  | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 3:22:49 PM | | OP - the problem that I have with technology is it takes away from personal development. To succeed in the world, to be creative, requires a great deal more effort than playing with video games, good old fashioned human interaction can't be beat. I agree, the time spent with these toys should be limited. After all, children AND adults still need to get some physical exercise and outdoor time! | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 5:25:01 PM | pairodocs: thanks for the compliment. I got tired of all the goings on with other threads. Funny you should mention I-Robot, I just ran into my copy of all three stories in that series. Remember, the first rule: Do no harm to humans.
On topic: It seems that most of us agree that tech. can be a good thing, if it's limited and balanced with other activities when they are young. Reading, playing board games (remember those?) with friends and families, having a place where the children can make things. I used to have an "art center" in the corner of the family room. There were crayons, paper, stickers, water paints, buttons, beads, glue, etc. etc. for my boys to just go and do. On the other side of the room was the computer (such as it was back then, before internet, etc.) They were allowed to use that also but for a limited amount of time. My boys spent a lot of time outside and they were also in cub scouts and boy scouts, my older one going on to become an Eagle Scout. His Eagle Scout project was a dinosaur mural he and others painted on the cafeteria wall of his elementary school.
cdn: re. Guitar Hero. You are absolutely right about it not being anything like playing a real guitar. If that 9 year old I talked about earlier had spent all those hours on a real guitar instead of the game, he would have become a very good!
I understand wanting to play the tech. games and getting addicted to them. I have an old playstation game that got me through the first few months of my divorce. It was good therapy for me at that time.
And I love the creativity of using a computer. I do pamphlets, business cards, etc. on my home publishing programs. I also love being able to have the "whole world" at my fingertips. But I also feel that a child below 10 years old or so, should have limited access to computers, tv. and game consoles.
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 12/9/2008 5:49:50 PM |
cdn: re. Guitar Hero. You are absolutely right about it not being anything like playing a real guitar. If that 9 year old I talked about earlier had spent all those hours on a real guitar instead of the game, he would have become a very good!
This example, OP, can be looked at two ways. I've not played Guitar Hero myself, but I do know pro guitarists who have, who are friends, and who have told me that if you want your kid to learn how to play a guitar, keep him away from GH. It will just hinder him. So this computer game works against playing a real guitar. But is that necessarily a bad thing ??
My first instrument was fishing line wrapped around, and tied to a 2 foot metal bar, with the other end tied to a metal towel bar, screwed to the wall of my family's camping trailer. I was 5 or 6 at the time. By the end of my first summer camping, I could play a number of simple songs on my fishing line, pole and towel rack. I probably started the parade of grey hairs on the heads of my parents, as well ... but that's another story.
The point is ... as with everything, it's not the device, but how it's used. The GH game will not help you play a guitar at all, but if it spawns creativity in whatever it's form, it has to be a good thing. Some of picture cropping, photo editing, cutting, splicing that I'm seeing come out of kids amazes me, at times. And to hear a friend's 7-year-old grand-daughter tell me about all the different stories of Santa Claus and the origins of Christmas in all corners of the world makes me realize the breadth of the learning tool that can be a computer hooked up to the internet.
Yeah sure ... kids gotta get out and play and burn off that energy. And as a musician, I always want to hear kids pick-up a musical instrument so there will be someone making music when I no longer can. But if creativity can come from a Wii game, or a computer paint program or whatever -- what da 'ell, I say. It ain't what ya got, but what ya do with it.
cdn guy | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 7/12/2012 11:24:10 PM | I think too much technology fosters impatience, obesity and attention deficits in children and stifles language skills, social appropriateness and manners.
Today's kids have cell phones, iPads, Facebook, MP3 players, computers, cable tv, etc. My generation had the library, outside in the neighborhood, the school playground and chores...TV was 3 channels and heck, I remember when the first FM rock radio station started in my area. Dang, I am old...Bwahahahahaha! | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 7/13/2012 8:18:18 AM | As with anything they can be abused.
In my generation while growing up, the villain was the TV and according to my parents "store bought" toys. They didn't have money to buy toys and were mostly left to their own devices to create things on their own.
Nonetheless, I grew up creative! My creativity is how I make a living now...
So, no I don't think technology hinders creativity at all. | |
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pfif
| | Joined: 6/11/2012
Msg: 24 | |
| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 7/13/2012 10:09:54 AM | We were feral children.
When I was six, I got seriously ill, and was taken out of first grade
after seven weeks of that (nuns, too -- got a sample of that mindset).
In the early spring, while the other kids went to school, I had the
whole neighborhood to myself. So I'd go and see the old man making
maple syrup in a shack, go out and look at his pails collecting the
tree sap, and catch turtles in the woods. Well, one turtle.
Saw an older boy take a pair of pliers to a bullet, remove the lead,
set the bullet on the window sill, and light the powder (a tiny rocket --
neat). I believe he's the one who shot someone through the calf of the
leg with a .22, when the bullet skipped off the water -- it was an accident.
We learned you could take a roll of caps -- those red paper tape
ones -- and push a shirt pin through each load of gunpowder, and
fanfold it. Wrap that with scotch tape. Make a fuse. BANG.
Pretty good, but you made three of them and lost interest. No
injury.
Made forts in the woods. A bow and arrow -- every boy had some
kind of a knife. First, jack-knives. Then, hunting knives. No
injuries.
Garrison Keillor mentions 'fooled with jack-knives and talked dirty'
as an activity. Yeah, he had that right. Though we didn't have any
clear notion what the dirty words meant. There was no place to go,
to find out. Still, we knew we liked what we saw in musty old copies
of Playboy. Nobody had to explain why. We just knew. The real filth
hadn't gone to press yet. We heard stories, passed by word of mouth.
That was about it. Even with pr0n, you had to use your imagination,
because nobody had any, just the stories they heard.
Sawed off the fork of an old bicycle, and tap the legs onto the ends
of a good bicycle -- chopper. They don't ride well. Disassemble.
Use vaseline to grease the wheel bearings. Probably ruins them.
Go down to the bicycle shop and spend your allowance on a gear
chain for a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed -- so you could do your paper
route.
Sent out of the house early in the day, not to return (except for
lunch) until dark, during summer. If you returned: weed the garden,
clean dad's mess in the garage (sawdust from his table saw got
over everything). Chores. That's what you had waiting for you
if you didn't get out of the house when mom said so. Smart woman.
Threw stones into the air and watch the bats dive-bomb them in
almost-dark twilight -- street lights already come on. That killed
an hour.
Found some palates fashioned into a raft -- materials probably lifted
from the construction of the new high school. Boarded the raft; the
weight of three of us kept the surface underwater, about two inches,
so our feet got wet -- and the pond was only four feet deep in most
places, but covered three acres. Saw tons of painted turtles, and
red-winged blackbirds in the reeds at the overgrown end of that
pond. Used a 9 foot pole to push off the bottom. I think ma's policy
was: well, you didn't drown two days ago when you said you went
there.
Not completely sure I didn't give her a cover story for that one.
Went into the brook where the skunk cabbage and water skeeters
were -- in my new Hush Puppies<tm> shoes that were supposed
to be for church. Oops. Did a lot of shoe-ruining -- a lot. I mean
a lot! Every pair -- wet. | |
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| Is too much technology affecting children's creativity/imagination?
Posted: 7/13/2012 10:37:48 AM | Technology is a tool, like anything else. It's how you use it that counts.
As for Games, some sociologists argue that Games exist because in evolutionary terms they are meaningful. When 2 lions play with one another, they are not just playing, but developing skills that are going to be useful when they become adults.
Everything we do influences the development of our brains. They trigger specific neurons and synaptic pathways, strengthening some, letting others weaken due to disuse.
As for computers and video games, like any sort of game can have benefits and they are not always evident.
Games like action games can develop spatial skills, or the ability to read and use maps and markers for navigation.
Strategy games can develop higher level strategic thinking, long term planning skills, and attention to detail.
Games involving music can improve one's ability to see musical patterns, remember musical sequences, and even synthesize musical composition.
Games with heavy textual elements can improve vocabulary, improve reading comprehension, and even help with grammar and writing skills.
Games that are multiplayer and involve co-operative activity have been shown by University studies to improve skills in communication, managing interpersonal relationship, and management skills such as time management, negotiation, and planning.
It is said that Chess was called the game of Kings and that the children of nobles were taught chess at an early age to prepare them for their future responsibilities. The ability to think strategically, understand the management of resources, to think long term, to anticipate multiple outcomes, to adjust to the reactions and tendencies of another human being, and to formulate detailed and complex plans were all desired benefits.
Can technology and games be abused/misused in the development of children? Of course they can. However, they are not inherently bad, and in some way can be very beneficial.
Technology does not hinder or enhance creativity in itself.
Does a word processor hinder a writer? Does using a painting program make someone less visually creative? Does a puzzle become less intellectually challenging because it is presented on a screen?
Technology is a tool. All that counts is that it is used wisely. | |
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