Think back to when you were a kid. Oblivious to any economic, political or societal issue. Life was good. Imagine it is summer and you are outside with your sibling or next-door neighbor, and you just got done playing mermaids or chicken in the pool, eating hotdogs loaded with way too much ketchup and drawing little doodles with sidewalk chalk.
What did you do when you went back inside for the night?
You played some more. Maybe colored in your favorite Disney coloring book or played pretend with your American Girl Dolls. I can tell you what you did not do. Go inside and immediately get on an iPad or iPhone and play games or scroll TikTok. Why? Because you were a kid, and kids should not be consumed by electronics and social media.
Keep in mind this is entirely my own opinion, but I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea of giving children electronics. And this article is not at all about me hating eight-year-olds, at least not entirely, but at some point, all that media consumption will catch up to them. Go play outside and touch grass. Not to say I am a luddite, because I do not hate technology or social media at all. I mean seriously I am building my entire career based on it. How could I hate it?
What I do hate is seeing children grow up dependent on electronics for entertainment. Maybe an hour or something is fine or using electronics to watch a movie but when seven- or nine-year-olds are scrolling through TikTok or YouTube for entertainment for an hour or even hours at a time that is a problem.
This leads to brain rot. Nonsense media clouding the brain of an individual. It is not just for kids though; brain rot can be seen in everyone who is online. Low attention spans due to the new wave of short-form content, the chronic use of internet slang and the lack of personality. (sorry!) Trust me as much as I hate to see it, I am also a victim of brain rot due to, specifically, TikTok. All the slang words I use and all the jokes I reference come straight from the TikTok videos engraved in my head in the form of brain rot.
I loved my childhood so whenever I am in public or at somebody’s house and I witness a child so consumed by the technology in their hand it genuinely breaks my heart. While I am not going to say anything, that is not my place, it makes me feel empathetic because children are too young to understand how that much consumption of technology or media will affect them later in life.
As future leaders, educators and parents it is our job to set an example for the youth. To show them life outside of a screen or a classroom. It is our job to show kids how to be kids and encourage them to enjoy their youth. For them to get dirty while playing outside or doing arts and crafts or for them to be imaginative while playing with their toys. I encourage us to give the kids of today the childhood that we had.