There’s been a lot of hand wringing lately over these kids today who don’t go outside to play anymore, they just hunker down and fuss with their smartphones. And I’m sure there’s a genuine problem here, and that, as a society, we will reap some kind of bitter harvest over this in the years ahead.

kids-phones

But something else always occurs to me when I hear these laments.

I was one of those kids in the golden age of riding a bike and playing outside all day. Yes, before there were smartphones, I had to use my imagination to amuse and entertain myself, and I had a very vivid imagination. And do you know what my imagination was imagining? Smartphones! That’s exactly what I wanted in my hands when I was a kid. Like the communicators in Star Trek, like the comlinks in Star Wars. That’s what I was daydreaming about. I just had to make do with an empty Milk Duds box and a couple of golf tees.

If I was a kid today with an iPad, I’d never leave the house.

PRP
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