Kids do not need gadgets, they need imagination

Growing up, technology’s biggest impact I remember was on my schooling life. During my primary years, I had to scan newspapers, magazines and old curriculum books to do my summer projects. I would leave no stone unturned to make the best project possible (I was a perfectionist 😊) - drawing borders carefully around each picture, using two color pens to highlight stuff, etc. I still have memories of each project given the amount of time I spent creating it - and in some cases it became an achievement (I still have a crooked yet lovely glass painting hanging on my wall). Fast forward to secondary school, I had access to Google. Everything was available at a click. So much so, everyone’s assignments started looking the same. Though I didn’t realise it then, I changed at a deeper level!

Earlier every project used to spark multiple emotions in me - excitement on the topic, anxiousness of gathering resources, toil of moving around gathering stuff and sense of achievement once the final output was made. Then suddenly I stopped caring about stuff. I knew - “yaar ye toh internet se ho jaayega’ (This is an easy-peasy task with the internet).

I felt slowly personal touch slipping away from what ‘I’ loved accomplishing.

Today, as a parent to 5month old baby girl, I am anxious and scared. I want her to benefit from technology as much as possible, but don’t want to let her originality slip away. With so many resources and content floating around, I don’t want her to fall short of ideas and have thoughts of her own. I don’t want her individuality to get lost as she grows!

Calling all millennial parents ❤️- lets be creative, think beyond screens. Give kids time and space to explore, fail, learn, repeat!

Spark imagination 💫- if the biggest tech entrepreneurs would have been sitting in their houses trapping their imagination with gadgets, the world wouldn’t be the same today!