superbass

Most western cities have gotten bad enough with people devoting the majority of their attention to personal screens at home, at work, at the coffee shop, on the subway, when they're out walking their dogs and even when they're driving. It's an anti-social type of addiction that no amount of "social networking" excuses can cover up. I think its horrifying to think that they're going to be raising kids by adding an extra 6 hours of "screen watching" to their lives at such an early age. Interacting with a computer/phone/tablet puts you into a little private bubble, and socialisation is probably the most important part of kids' educations from 4-12 years old. I know real teachers/blackboards/whiteboards/slide shows/overhead projectors are nowhere near as interactive or entertaining as an iPad is (), but they are also inherently social teaching aides that kids experience as a collective. I love the idea of iPads as take-home tools for kids that need some extra tutoring, but this just sounds dystopian to me.

Also, it's been common knowledge that staring at close screens for long periods of time is absolutely horrible for your eyesight - I hope they at least make the kids take breaks every 15 minutes and have some sort of "focus your eyes on distant objects" breaks so they don't all get unnaturally nearsighted!