the Onda

Having just heard that in this fast-paced world we live in, it is possible for a 5 year-old to be given a cellphone, I got to thinking about this wonderful Economist piece on toys with an ethic. Specifically the piece calls out Lego and Playmobil, Danish and German respectively, and talks about some of what the design and manufacture of these toys says about their intended audiences national cultures.

I'm not sure what handing a 5 year-old a cellphone means for us, or why exactly it rubs me the wrong way. After all I love shoving tech down kids' throats as early as possible (Lego Mindstorms, the OLPC, etc.). But somehow the idea of a weekend day punctuated with the interruptions of calls and smses makes me depressed— after all, it will happen in time anyway, so why rush it?

The counter example is our marginally useful Roomba (a month of real data now) that delights both boys as it scurries around the first floor sucking up dirt and toys alike. None of us can figure out how its random pattern is determined and the boys particularly enjoy trying to "force" it to a particular path (albeit without much success) for hours on end. Not exactly a "thinking kid's toy" but one from which they get a chance to learn anyway.