Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Invasion of Gadgets !!!


The arrival of iPhone and iPad have I believed drastically changed the lifestyle of many both locally and abroad. I think (my opinion solely) that the craze has reached a feverish pitch which I think it's rather unhealthy.

I was having my dinner with my wife the other day at the Hyatt Saujana Ara Damansara. While we were talking and waiting for our dinner to be served, in walk a group of young people, 6 of them in their early 20s. They were sitting a couple of tables of away and the moment when everyone settled down in their seats, everyone brought out their SMART phones and iPhones and were all busy typing, texting, checking and God knows what...they were doing with the handset ....

Question: Why bother to meet up for lunch where everyone basically will sit there round the table and were busy texting someone else or busy updating their facebook telling others where they are and what they were eating...

Or would you let your children play with some apps on the iphone or ipad in order to keep them quiet during a function outside? I'm actually in a dilemma here. On one hand, I know for a fact that I will be able to keep Ryan glued to his seat if I give him something to occupy him like our phones or probably a Sony portable playstation (I think that is what it is called)....but on the other hand, am I starting him young on getting addicted to video games and replacing that with the simple pleasures of life like climbing trees and catching spiders and butterflies like I used to do ...

If he gets totally addicted to computer games or online games later in life and neglect his studies, can I discipline him in all honesty knowing that it was I who introduced him to it in the first place .....

What do you as parents think?

5 comments:

Winnie said...

oh well... kids nowadays are like that, not to mention adults like me hahaha we're so used to play with our phones, be it iPhone or BlackBerry... it's addictive! haha

MeRy said...

Kids nowadays are very high-tech and some primary school children even ask for Blackberry from their parents..

Unknown said...

I have smartphone but I never let my children touch it.... like you, I'm worried that they will get addicted to those games. I saw how my 4yo nephew trying to manipulate my bil after he is exposed to PSP and smartphone.

Adrine said...

I've raised the white flag when it comes to the Ipad, but with basic ground rules like educational games and time limit. When used properly, it's actually a good learning tool. (for learning ABCs, fixing jigsaw puzzles etc)

Mummy and daddy: Angie and Ben said...

We let Evan use the ipad at home with time limitation, but personally I'm not very keen on bringing it out. He gets too addicted. But I wonder how long before the ipad finds its way out of the house!

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