Watch this video of a young child trying to manipulate a printed magazine like an iPad. Notice how she tries to pinch and swipe the printed pages of the magazine. Frustrated that she can’t get the pages to respond, she begins to wonder if it’s her finger that’s broken, so she presses her finger into her leg to be sure the finger still works. Finally, she’s frustrated and leaves the paper magazine to find something that works.
It’s interesting to think about how each new generation sees the world. I’m in my 50’s, but consider myself a “digital migrant.” I was born in the paper publishing world, but have migrated to the digital world. My children live in the digital world, where mobile phones are a necessity and never leave their side. They are familiar with alarm clocks and corded telephones, but they’ve long since replaced them with their personal mobile phone. My grandchildren are like the child in this video, where an iPad is more familiar to them than a printed magazine.
Where do you fit in this continuum and where do you see it heading?
I think that’s kind of sad that this small child has mastered the iPad. It’s like cursive writing – it’s taught for about 5 minutes in our school. My 13 year old can’t sign his name or read letters that Grandma writes to him because he can’t read or write cursive. We have a world that wants to be entertained as fast and as spectacularly as possible. Will they grow up having the patience to work hard for what they want or will they grow up with an entitlement attitude that demands instant results for very little work? I fear they will want their success to be as instant as their information. I already see that attitude forming when I see teens who think the best of everything is their right. What happens when (or if) they finally move out? Will they be able to stand the poor student years or will they run themselves into the ground buying all the toys Mom and Dad once gave them but they now have to pay for themselves?
The fancy electronics in our lives have become necessities when they should really be luxuries.
Besides that, there is no way on this earth my 1 year old would be touching my iPad… 🙂
She’s a baby/toddler. I doubt that she has learned to associate the flexing of her hand on the iPad surface with “pinch to zoom.” All she knows is that the screen flashes and colors immediately erupt whenever she touches the screen, so she expects the same behavior from any printed, colorful surface.
This is not to say we shouldn’t be watchful of how much we expose our children to digital media or how we may be subtly programming them to disregard “analog” devices like books and paper in favor of shiny electronic devices. But I think the creator of that particular YouTube video is being a little overdramatic in his conclusions.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
Here’s a contrary point of view
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/making-sense-of-news/149832/reality-check-viral-ipad-video-has-cute-baby-faulty-premise/
Ok this kid is only about one year old! I dont think the rest of her lifes attitude toward electronics/non electronics can be determined based on how user-frienly Apple products are. I believe we have a world that is increasingly going digital and it is important that our kids know electronics better than we do. Of course books and such are also very important, but why cant a child love both? My 3 year old does. The child in this video is simply still learning. The fact that she is playing with both the iPad and magazines tells me that she will grow up with both and we cant judge her future based on the fact that the iPad is more visually stimulating to a toddler.