Everything bad is good for you.

When I was little, I spent hours playing with my doll house and pretending to be Laura Ingles Wilder in the backyard.  Our five year old spends hours watching strange adults play with toys and open Surprise Eggs on YouTube.  In elementary school I could disappear with a book for four hours.  Our eight year old would spend four hours a day playing Minecraft if we let her.

Why is this adult playing My Little Pony?!?

I don't mind that our kids get some screen time.  Who am I trying to kid?  A LOT of screen time. I want them to have a working knowledge of technology and pop culture.  Plus, the time to myself is GLORIOUS! However, I have never once seen one of my kids set down the iPad or walk away from the t.v. voluntarily.  I sometimes worry that technology is sucking all of the creativity out of them and re-wiring their little brains.  I am also annoyed that their go-to topics of conversation are John Cena and cat videos.

Please stop with the cat videos.

I had often said that one day I would do an experiment where I let the girls play with their iPads with absolutely no time limit. That day arrived in August, as the movers pulled up to our new Arkansas house in a gigantic truck.  My husband had to be at work, so to keep the girls out from under foot I said "Play with electronics for as long as you want."  They thought their mom had surely been replaced by an alien.  Can you guess what happened?  They played with their iPads ALL DAY LONG.  They set the little brain-sucking devices down for food and bathroom trips (I hope!) and that was it. When the batteries died, they sat on the floor next to a plug.  The movers commented on what well behaved children I had.  I refrained from replying "They're not actually this well behaved, they're just zombies."

Someone mentioned a book to me once called "Everything Bad Is Good For You."  I haven't actually read the book, but it's an interesting thought to ponder.  I ponder it often.  It makes me feel better about myself.  They cited the example that someone can sit for hours and read a book and no one blinks an eye, but sit for that long with your tablet and that is bad, bad, bad.  But really, is one worse than the other?  In each case you are staring at something and avoiding contact with others.

This is probably the book.  I may have to read it. 

 (While looking for the book online, I also came across this interview from the 4th love of my life, NPR)

On the other hand, I just read an article that talked about how hours spent watching YouTube videos activates the fight or flight response in a child's brain and is making children fat or distracted, I forget which.  Is that actually a thing?  I'm sure when I was young there was an article about how video games were doing just that to me.  Twenty years before that it was probably Saturday morning cartoons.

Could it be that all this technology is just a different avenue for kids to interact and a new platform for creativity?  The eight year old will link worlds in Minecraft with a friend who has come over, play, talk and laugh for as long as I let them.  Is that really so different from playing a board game?  She also recently spent an hour writing out plans for a Minecraft theme park.  That is development of literacy skills, people!  The girls are constantly asking to film themselves doing "challenges" or making their own Surprise Egg videos.  And since I refuse to buy the ridiculous Surprise Eggs, they make their own by wrapping little crap up in paper.  So, see?  They are thinking creatively and using problem solving skills.

Surprise!  It's a plastic egg with tiny plastic crap inside.
I refuse.

I'll just keep telling myself that they are developing twenty-first century skills instead of numbing their brains.  Now, if I can just get them to start coding, they can support us in our old age.