Changes - outside and inside

There was a time when I was young when children read. They read and read. And read. People said we were book worms. People said so much reading can't be good for the eyes. What we needed was a bit of physical activity.

Then when my daughter was growing up, it was the age of the television. I cannot forget how sick I would feel when I saw my daughter watching the same silly Popeye cartoon day after day after day. Then we said all that television couldn't be good for the children. It made them passive. It did not allow their imagination to grow. It was bad for their eyes. What they needed was a bit of physical activity and reading.

Then my little nephews came into being. We saw them grow, handling the mouse and the computer almost as if they were born with computers tied to them. They played games on the computer. They learnt on the computer - first from CD ROMs and then the internet. Then we all said so much computer can't be good for children. It spoilt not only their eyes, but also their hearing. It messed up their little wrists. It made them sedentary. Above everything else, it made them unsocial. What they needed was a bit of physical activity, some reading and some company.

Then the children grew up and found Facebook. They found orkut and various other social networking platforms. They also discovered telephones and specially mobiles. They spent hours chatting - over the internet, over mobiles and landlines - by texting - to known and unknown people, sometimes at great risks. Then we said so much socialising cannot be good for them. Social media and communication technology made them obsessive and egotistic. Social media tended to trivialise relationships. There was great risk from strangers. What they needed was a bit of physical activity, some reading and responsibility and discrimination in relationships, and a return to committed formal education, from which they were gradually straying.

Now we have the ipads and smartphone devices, adding a new addictively attractive dimension to technology tools, bringing back the excitement of touch and feel to life - the kinaesthetic sensation that had occupied the backseat in the early years of communication technology advancement. Now what will this do? What will happen to the next crop of children with their little hands exploring the world through the touchpad technology? What faculties of theirs will their new toy heighten? And what faculties will it atrophize? What will we say of this new tool ten years from today?