One of my friends recently purchased Wii FitPlus for her daughter in order to encourage her do some exercises. Her 4-year-old daughter is quiet and shy. She would rather playing piano for 40 minutes, instead of playing slide in the playground. It is quite understandable that my friend worries about her daughter’s athletic performance. However, among Wii’s hundreds of games, her daughter only likes the very gentle yoga exercise and prefers watching her mom playing game and giggling on the sofa. My friend said that it was one of the regretful purchases she has made.
We are living in a world fulfilled with ubiquitous technologies which all claim to make our life better; however, is our life really made better by things like TV, computer and Wii? The recent recall scandal of Disney Baby Einstein DVDs pulls the debate again under spotlights.
Although I am one of the parents who introduce TV to kids in their early ages, I do not think watching TV and learning from TV can replace the interactions between kids and parents. According to an article on TIME two years ago (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html), some TV learning programs, such as Baby Einstein and Sesame Street are considered by lots of parents as a replacement for parents’ evolvement in early education. That is not a feasible trend. Parents are not just giving birth to kids. More than feeding them up, we are here to nourish them. Even though 24/7 parents are the toughest job in the world, in my opinion, a 30-minute story time everyday is really crucial for not only kids but also parenting course. Interacting with kids is pretty time-consuming, but it worth all the inputs.
It is undoubted that increasing pressure from work and life in modern society keeps parents really busy and overloaded. A one-hour TV program can allow a desperate mommy finish a simple yoga section and free a sweaty daddy to a relaxing shower.
I think that interest groups, like Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) are not only expressing their indignation towards the current intensive and overwhelming commercial market, but also are broaching their concern for the next generation and the future of human beings.
New Vocabularies:
ubiquitous:being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent.
indignation: anger aroused by something unjust, mean, or unworthy.
broach: to bring up (a subject) for discussion or debate.
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