#technologyandchildren

“The change between this generation of the 90’s / 2000’s and the current generation is massive due to the extreme changes in    technology”

 Childhood is an important part of our life, the way we live our childhood usually gives an impression of our future.  How has this changed within the last 2 decades? Did children in the past have a better childhood than the children today? Is the rapid development of technology forcing children to grow up quicker and fully value and live their childhood?

Using my childhood as a comparison, I will be discussing how the way children grow up has changed throughout the decades with the development of technology.

The first thing I remember about my childhood is the cartoons I used to watch, and the first one that pops into my head is Pokémon (an all time classic never to be forgotten), followed by, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom & Jerry, Inspector Gadget, Dexter’s Laboratory, PowerPuff Girls and many more which had had a lot more diversity in characters and different concepts. Furthermore, we’d have to wait for them to be aired, or rent copies from the local library or Blockbusters. Today’s kids don’t feel the need to rent out animation series from the library, nor is there a Blockbusters for them to go to (the rental chain closed permanently on December 2013), they can watch any animation they want on the internet, just at the tip of their fingers either via YouTube, Netflix or other sites that feature animation. Cartoons today either involve Zombies, Vampires, Bratz or Princesses which show minimal diversity in characters and concepts. Cartoons from my childhood were definitely more broad in terms of characters and ideas.

Going on to books, they were all paper based, obviously tablets and kindles hadn’t been invented then. One of the first books I read was Cinderella, which I believe why it is my favourite Disney classic, which then led me to all the other classics like Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. In Year 5 I was introduced to A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snickett, which our teacher read to us at the end of each day, one of the memories I will never forget. I am particularly excited that it is being made into a series! During Year 6 I was introduced to the Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis, both book series I will never forget and cherish forever. Other books I enjoyed reading include Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Seeing these titles among the ones that are still read and enjoyed by children today puts a smile on my face. Other titles include We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael J. Rosen, Not Now Bernard! by David McKee, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon, George’s Marvellous Device, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Twits by Roald Dahl and The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

More recent publications of (both mature and young) children’s books include The Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) by Jeff Kinney, Gansgta Granny (2011) by David Walliams and The Fault in our Stars (2012) by Suzanne Collins. A book series currently popular is The Mortal Instruments (first book published in 2007) by Cassandra Clare.

Within the past 2 decades there has been a great deal of improvement on technology which happens to have a great effect on todays children. My niece can easily ’swipe’ the login screen a smartphone and change and choose videos on YouTube from her mum’s phone (she’s only 2!). I’d never even dream of such a gadget, all I had was a Tamagotchi and shared a Tetris and Game Boy with my brother. We also had a Nintendo 64 which was very popular at the time, as was PlayStation 2 when it was released in 2001.I didn’t need to depend on tablets or kindles to read, play or do school projects. We had desktop computers at school to be used on school projects and research only! 

Children today have everything centred around their tablets or iPod (touchscreen, obviously and some even have their own phones!) tend to rely on tablets for everything, whether it be reading, gaming or “chilling with friends” or social networking. Children today prefer reading on tablets rather than physically holding a book to read. I, personally, still prefer to read from a book rather than a tablet. There is also a wider range of gaming consoles to play with, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox are currently the most popular followed by Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii offering HD quality graphics compared to a decade ago. 

So, is there a difference in the number of consoles on the market now compared to the consoles in 2000’s? There were 10 gaming consoles, (dating late 90’s early 2000’s) Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Game Boy being most popular. Surprisingly, 10 gaming consoles are popular on the market today, with PlayStation 4 taking lead.  One would think that with such development in technology there would be more gaming consoles however, this development also applies to computing. Almost all children today have their own individual laptops or tablets, whereas back in my childhood there used to be one PC per household and if you had a large family there would be a lot of arguments about whose turn it was to go on the computer. The main argument between me and siblings today is about what we should watch on TV. (I guess that’s still a permanent argument in almost every household)

My best memory from my childhood is actually playing outside, whether it be hot or cold. We were outside whenever we could be. We had a life size snakes & ladders and a life size chess board on our school playground which we’d have to take turns to play with. We also had a life-size Giant Jenga. One of the main games I played during my childhood was hide & seek and British Bulldog. straight after I got back from school I would change my uniform and go back out to play again until my mum called me in. There were a lot of outdoor games I used to play with my peers which include Hopscotch, Skipping, Duck Duck Goose, Dodgeball, What’s The Time Mr Wolf? and Chinese Whispers. All time party favourites were Musical Chairs and Pass the Parcel. Children today are more interested in staying indoors watching TV, playing computer games, surfing the web or even doing their homework. The fun I had playing outside in my childhood definitely beats the fun children today have from staying indoors and playing computer games. Now, some of you maybe inclined to say, “Well, if you had the technologies today back then you would be doing the same and not play outdoors.” I still watched TV and played video games (Paper Mario wins hands down) but I definitely made the time and effort to play outdoors as well. Because children today don’t give themselves the chance to play outside they can miss out on learning their community and not make as many friends and have the opportunity to socialise and have fun, not to mention that it may also have an effect on their health, and they will be deprived of creating treasured childhood memories which I look back on with a silly grin on my face.

It is quite difficult to say which era’s childhood is better, we had a great time outdoors, socialising and making new friends in the neighbourhood, we were definitely politer and showed more respect to others and especially our teachers and elders. Whereas children today have the amazing advantage of technology, whether it is good or bad for them depends on how their parents educate them about it. As children we were all curious, back then we’d ask our parents questions and they would answer according the depth of the question however, children today can relieve their curiosity by engaging with the web, not even asking their parents anymore, which means there is the risk of them knowing more than their brains can process. It can be said that children today are definitely growing up quicker than the previous generations. Nedko Ivanov, BullGuard’s chief executive told The Daily Mail that “parents…said their children owned a mobile phone, pierced their ears and had a TV in their bedroom at the age of 10. Getting an iPad, choosing their own clothes and making their own breakfast were also luxuries listed that a typical 10-year-old can enjoy”

The use of gadgets, Google and social networking sites are pushing children to mature much quicker, which 77% of parents blamed the web. Through the use of social networking children are bombarded with imagery, wording and other things that could be key factor for their rapid maturity.