When I was little, my sister and I loved to pretend we were teachers. Every day we would put on mom’s high heels and stomp around the house with our clipboards yelling at the make believe children to be quiet and walk in a straight line. Finally, my dad realized how much we loved to play school and hung a whiteboard in each of our rooms so we could be even better pretend teachers.

Like most of my friends, we had these vivid imaginations that could turn a bedroom into a school, hospital, grocery store, jungle or whatever location we wanted to be playing in that day. It was a skill that unfortunately many kids today just simply do not have.

I babysit frequently and have realized that many of today’s children have lost the ability to pretend and imagine. This is most definitely to no fault of their own. Children do not have to create their own fantasy worlds because they have an iPad, a big screen TV or a Wii to do it for them. What kid wants to go through all the extra work of coming up with a make-believe scenario if they can just push a button and be put in a virtual reality that, in some cases, is better than anything they could have created with their own imaginations? When they turn on that iPad, they get instant gratification as they can enter a world full of princesses, ninjas or soldiers. It takes little effort and is extremely pleasing. 

Today’s youth is growing up in a society highly dependent on technology. We rely on our gadgets to wash our dishes, assist us with our homework, get to work in the morning, cook our meals and unfortunately for many children, technology has become something heavily relied on for entertainment and fun. 

It is a shame that many children today reach for the video game controller instead of a baseball glove. It is too bad that little girls would rather play a simulated version of house on a iPad than actually grab some baby dolls and pretend. It is scary to see children move down this direction, and I fear that it could have serious implications. 

If children no longer have a desire to play outside and run around in the dirt, then they have lost some of their sense of adventure and carelessness. If they no longer want to dress up and create fantasy worlds, then they have lost a bit of their creativity and imagination. 

Adventure and imagination are vital parts of a person’s childhood. Once you cross the line between being a kid and an adult much of that carelessness, excitement for adventure and imagination go by the wayside, and it would be a terrible thing to strip children of the opportunity to feel those things. 

The saddest part of this entire epidemic is that the kids are not to blame. It is much easier to entertain a child on a long drive with an iPad or Game Boy than it would be to have them sing silly songs or make up their own games. When kids are bored on a rainy day turning on the TV is an easier solution to the problem, rather than forcing them to go design their own game to play. These electronics satisfy children and keep them calm, which is why so many parents are turning to them for assistance. 

I do believe that there is one perk to having so many electronic devices. Many games on tablets are geared toward learning and can help make children enthusiastic about school work. However, I think we should reevaluate our use of these devices and work to strike a balance. Utilize these fairly new gadgets for things like education and the occasional source of entertainment, while still stressing the importance of being a kid and using your imagination while you still have it. We need to do better as a society to encourage today’s youth to maintain active imaginations and to not depend so heavily on electronics.