Immigration

Kids have always had sparkly imaginations, unlike anything else, their creativity too. There was a time where kids would go to school and as soon as they came home they would go outside and play in the trees or they would go across the street and play with the neighboring child. But all of this is ever-changing at a pace that is hardly understood.

In a world where the development of technology has no limits, a question comes to mind: How much technology is too much technology? Dr. Larry Rosen begins his article by presenting different cases of children calming down by being placed in front of an iPad comparing it to the worrying case of a four-year-old girl, who is being treated for an actual iPad addiction. These two cases bring Larry Rosen to pose the question “Where do you draw the boundary between allowing your children to avail themselves of highly engaging technologies and excessive use or overuse of those very same highly engaging technologies?” and where do you draw the line? It’s hard to say mainly in part due to what Larry Rosen says himself. Rosen states that technology is “an interesting double-edged sword” He goes on to describe the way that small children can benefit from the use of apps, because they have the ability to teach them “Math, science, reading and a host of other skills” however, he also presents to us as readers some of the mind-numbing app that has no specific use and that these apps are the ones that children highly adore and enjoy. It’s very clear that Larry Rosen is trying to give both sides of the story so to speak. However, this begs the questions “Is this bad for our children? Is it wrong to provide them the most up-to-date tools for both entertainment and teaching? […]” Larry Rosen is in no way condescending in his quest of informing us the readers, and he does not present a universal truth nor answer. What he does is open the discussion by giving a various range of good and bad things about the topic matter. He doesn’t give us the answer, he uses reason and objectivity to present us a certain situation and then creates a point of discussion by asking us simple questions throughout the article. It can be clearly seen in the way he argues for one side of the matter regarding how you should as a parent cope with your child being over-stimulated by technology. He recommends what he refers to as the 1 to 5 ratio: “For every minute of tech use there should be an equivalent 5 minutes of time spent doing something else including talking to people, interacting with toys that promote creativity (and mind wandering) and doing activities that calm an overactive brain”. he also mentions that this ratio may change over time: “[…] Around the time your child is a preteen the ratio is usually about half and half.” as stated above, this is just one side of the argument Larry Rosen tries to give both sides by stating that aren’t we as parents used to the same? Didn’t our parents do exactly the same thing to us, but instead of putting an iPad in our hands we would be put in front of the tv when mom and dad needed time for themselves or time to make dinner. So, as you can see we’re not given a definite answer to the question posed earlier. In the case of a four-year-old being treated for iPad addiction is this an actual thing? Hanna Rosin whom is interviewed in the video about how children use iPads says that she researchers is starting to think that there is a difference between what goes on in these devices (iPad, smartphone) and the television, but that we really have to think hard and long about when children are concentrating intensely and when they are addicted. She goes on to say that “A child who is genuinely addicted is a rare phenomenon.” Hanna Rosin goes on to say that whilst some things are lost with less use of tactile play there is also something to be gained from the world of technology and that there is some thing to be gained from both worlds. Much in line with what Larry Rosen is saying when he speaks about the good and the bad things about children using an iPad. At last Hanna Rosin says that she believes a lot of this “hate” towards the usage of technology stems from a place of nostalgia where there is only one way to have