It was only been about 20-30 years ago that children used to play outside all day, riding their bicycles, playing sports and discovering nature. Most children created imaginary games that didn’t require costly equipment or parental supervision. Children of the past were more in contact with each other and their surroundings when compared with today’s generation.
Instead, modern-day children are glued to their computers and/or iPhones. They move from their buses to schools, and then by buses travel back to their homes, rarely spending time outdoors. Most of their experience is virtual, and with each passing year, children are jumping on board this behavior band wagon at ever earlier ages.
Sadhguru provides some insight on this topic.
Sadhguru: “Today, there are so many forces influencing children – friends, Facebook advisors, televisions; three-year-old kids are glued to the screen and we don’t know what they understand or take in. This moment there is a toothpaste advertisement, the next moment somebody is talking about creating a beautiful world, the next moment there is a bombing. We don’t know how a three-year-old is drinking it up.
Would you give a sharp knife to an infant? No. I am telling you, the technology that you have today is sharper than a knife. You must choose an appropriate age and level of maturity before a child handles it. Unfortunately, society has moved in a certain way in imitation of what somebody else is doing in the West. Statistics say that there are 25-year-old video game addicts in the United States who spend more than six hours a day playing video games. Twenty-five is the age when a man makes his life. But they are playing video games, which are just ridiculous kids’ stuff, six hours a day. They can’t come off it, they’re just on it.
Technology has no quality of its own. How we use it can make us or break us. It is left to the individual and the culture to bring this awareness into the child that technology is made for our wellbeing, not to destroy ourselves. If this is taught to every child, I think they will use it in a positive way.”
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