Study: Parents Encourage Tots to Watch TV
Published: 5/24/06, 7:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight in 10 of the nation's youngest children - babies up to age 6 - watch TV, play video games or use the computer for about two hours on a typical day. A third live in homes where the TV is on most of the time.
Even for the littlest tots, TV in the bedroom isn't rare: 19 percent of babies under 2 have one despite urging from the American Academy of Pediatrics that youngsters not watch any television at that age.
Read the rest of the story here....Knox at 9 months is fascinated with the computer already. We occasionally let him pound the keys in a Word Document, but we are holding off on the computer games and TV shows and movies. He has shown a decided preference for Seinfeld, Singing in the Rain, and that insane Beep Beep commercial that Ford is running right now. Which, fortunately, he only gets to see rarely since we hardly ever watch TV.
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He's going to grow up in a world totally different from mine. I remember the days BEFORE debit cards and online banking---when you actually had to go to the bank to get your cash and you mailed the bill payment or drove to the office to pay your phone bill.
When researching a paper meant visiting the library.
I remember typewriters. The manual ones.
And mimeograph machines with the Blue lettering.
And the first Xerox copy machine that we had at school. You could lick the back of the paper and it tasted sour.
Carbon paper was used as much as Xerox machines, probably more, to make copies.
We used pen and ink to write our reports and notes in school.
I remember digital watches being the latest "new" technology.
Color TV's were a big deal.
Phones all had rotary dials, with cords connecting the receiver to the handset. You were "trapped" if the neighbor lady called you. You were the answering machine.
My generation has seen the music media evolve from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs to MP3 players.
Blackberries were a fruit picked in the woods and brought home to Mom to make pie.
It was different back then. We rode our bikes outside, and played outside. We didn't know the word "computer" or "VCR" or DVD" or "digital cameras"....even a microwave.
Life was simple. Eat, sleep, play. With Legos, or Matchbox cars....
In 2000, I was computer illiterate. In 2006, I am considered a "super-user" at work. I've used programs like Quark, Illustrator, and SAP with ease. I carry a cell phone, pay bills online, buy items online, research oodles of things on Google. I even took college classes online. Life is fast paced. The wealth of information available is exhausting and changing as we speak.
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My little boy already has a profile set up on our new computer. He can't wait!!
The free MP3 player we got for ordering DSL is just waiting for him. By then it will be an antiquated piece of plastic and I will probably get a long sigh from him. "You want me to use THAT?"
Just wait til we show him Grandpa's portable record player from the 60's.
