We don't let Kate watch much TV, but we thought we better have a way to keep her occupied waiting for our flights and on our flights. It worked, but I was reminded of why we don't let Kate watch much TV: it's ADDICTIVE for her. We'd rather her play (inside or outside) and look at books, anything other than becoming another TV/Computer/Gadget zombie child.
Kate developed a favorite saying on our trip. I've been recording her first word each day in my journal, just for fun. One morning when I went into her room (we had a suite the last part of the week) to get her out of the crib, her first word was "light" because I'd turned on a lamp to get her up, and with her next breath she said, "More Chuggy!" Not "Daddy," "Mommy," "Breakfast," or any of her usual first words of the day, but "More Chuggy!" She had watched those 3 20-minute episodes so often that it was all she began to think about. At various times throughout the day, she'd say it to us. She wanted to watch Chuggington, ALL THE TIME.
I don't think using the TV (or newer technology) to babysit children is a good idea. As I've worked with teenagers since the late 1990's, I've noticed a drastic change in how they act and interact. It's disturbing. I regularly witness groups of teenage boys and girls in a room together, DURING UNSTRUCTURED TIME (no lesson, no one addressing the group), and the only thing you can hear is thumbs moving on keyboards or scrolling the glass faces of their phones. Sometimes, they're texting each other - in the same room - instead of talking. I've also experienced this on trips, where there's very little sound inside the van I'm driving, because everyone is playing with their phones. When this trend first started, I banned the use of phones, iPods, etc. on our trips so that they would ENGAGE one another. It didn't work: they mostly just rode in silence unless I tried to make them talk via playing games, etc.
Years ago, some of the greatest ministry the week of a youth retreat happened ON THE RIDE TO/FROM OUR DESTINATION. Now on these trips, there's mostly silence or music from the radio that few people hear because they're all listening to their own. We witnessed this same thing on the subway last week - most people were PURPOSEFULLY isolated, even though they were sitting or standing inches away from others.
I'm an introvert, but I like to talk to people. The few times I've flown alone, I've usually sat beside someone who wanted to talk and I generally enjoyed the conversation. But nowadays, kids don't care to talk to even the people they KNOW, let alone the people they don't know. I wonder how some of them will find a relationship meaningful enough for marriage. I wonder how the Christians in these younger generations will ever be able to share the Gospel, which by nature is difficult, controversial, and polarizing, when they don't even have the desire to have conversation with others.
As funny as it sounds coming from a 22-month old, I hate the reality of the words, "More Chuggy!"
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