COMPUTERS FOR PRESCHOOLERS?

I was thinking about computers for preschoolers, and what one of my professors at UCLA described as fighting against a rising tide. I agree with that — it is happening. People tend to jump on the bandwagon with this kind of stuff with the belief that it is educational and beneficial to their children. There may even be a badge of honor in having your child know how to use a computer and control a mouse (when you, yourself, didn’t learn how until 30).

We will eventually see the results in the way children are able to handle themselves, and in the way they are able to control their impulses, and feel satisfaction in their physical bodies rather than in their minds. This will be an evolution — I wonder what Darwin would think?

Some of us deliberately keep our children away from the bleeping and blipping rewards of computers (I believe that those blips and bleeps stimulate a deep pleasure center of the brain in a highly unnatural way, that desensitizes children to their real life experience.)
And I am guessing that those of us who keep our children away from electronic toys and computers until later, until after their brains are more developed, until, say, 6 years old, will end up with a human being who is more capable of surviving happily in the world. And eventually, these kids, who have been brought up with a “whole child” approach, will end up being almost a separate breed, with distinct abilities.

Just like learning to write and read, our children are definitely able to learn to use computers at even 18 months of age. But what is the point? And what is the point of sitting an 18 month old child down in front of videos? Give them some blocks instead, so they can begin to contemplate physics – atoms and how they fit together to form things…!!

Yes, it is happening. It is a rising tide, and we are evolving in some way. I just wonder which species will be more fit to survive?