Is Technology Bad for Kids?

Have you met five-year-old Mumbai-based pre-schooler Moksha Jain? She can’t get through a single meal without her tablet playing cartoons in front of her. Or ten-year-old Bangalore-based Ethan D’sa, who has a cell phone, tablet and laptop and can always be seen on either one or all of these attention-seeking gadgets at any given time of the day?

Kids today are battling an addiction of sorts. Tablets, smartphones and gaming devices such as Nintendo DS, Wii and PS3 are gifted to them not only as a means of entertainment, but also to buy that little bit of momentary peace of mind for the adults. Basically, a “shut-up toy” (an actual industry term) to occupy them during daily routines such as errands, car rides and eating out. It's said that the smarter the toy, the lesser challenged the kid. Everything is done at the click of a button or rather the tap of a screen nowadays. Even easy access to information could potentially be spoiling the younger generation, with spoon-fed solutions from Google and an abundance of information of the wrong kind.

But is exposure to technology all bad? Rest assured, as always there's a flipside and in this case, an upside. For both sides of the argument, read this extensive article Is Technology Bad for Kids? and tell us whether you agree.