The Zombification of our Nation
Questioning Unrestricted Hypertech for Five-year-olds
Are we sure having the City of New York sending “official Dept. of Education” Laptops out to every 5 year old in the city-wide Kindergarten program is progress? Because that’s what’s happening.
Has the research not shown that electronic devices particularly of the kind with addictive screens and apps are inappropriate for children? And I mean, most children - I’m hearing the magic number is no phone or ipad till age fourteen. Or else.
Or else what?
Or else their still-developing brains are met with addictive dopamine triggers that they cannot find elsewhere, and they become permanently conditioned to habitual device use. Their eyes dart around. They have trouble making eye-contact. They eat shit and die!
So, under the guise of technological advancement and uplifting poor families, we are embedding the devices of our collective addiction into the homes of children who in every other civilized era humanity has ever existed in, would have been using papers, pads, and pencils - the workbooks and handouts we all used. (And think how many years of evolution or godliness in the garden of Eden passed during pre-civilization beforehand.)
Are the rich kids in the best schools also being forced to use electronic devices? Or are they getting careful, individual attention, learning how to write with pencils and pens, learning how to draw without the dip of their finger — actually using the original tactile tools that made humankind famous/infamous the world over.
And is it even cutting down on our overuse of renewable resources? Who among you actually knows whether the electric in your home is more “green” than the production of recyclable paper? Isn’t much of that electric coming from coal plants?
So what the hell are we achieving here?
Is it merely, “You poor people get to have an expensive device—that you do not own and must return—in your home. That should make you feel better about your miserable lives. Don’t revolt.”
Do five-year-olds need iPads?
What are the apps providing that they didn’t have without them?
And the ultimate question that can perhaps aid in answering of all the rest:
Who is getting rich off this?
Your children?
Or someone else?
Once again we are failing our children. Education is now big business, and testing is a big part of that. Technology and education go great together, but the tech and educational book publishers are stalling that wonderful union by de-railing with profit margins. Major colleges and universities are now just profit centers under the guise of "research facilities", while also allowing athletic departments to go unchecked (hence why they won't pay student athletes, but that's a different topic). Education tablets should only be used for school, and parents need to be more vigilant and actually monitor their kids education as well. It all goes back to your discussion about parenting a few posts ago.
Very good point