From the story: Technology has been slowly permeating the toy business for a number of years, but the trend has been accelerating. On Wednesday, six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon.com were tech gadgets. For all of 2006, three of the top nine toys for that age group were tech-related. The trend concerns pediatricians and educators, who say excessive screen time stifles the imagination. But more traditional toys — ones without computer monitors, U.S.B. cables and memory cards — are seen by many children as obsolete.
NY Times
1 comment:
i just did a quick search on what happens to old computers and electronic equipment when we get tired of it (which kids quickly do as we all know). these youth electronic devices are made with toxic chemicals like lead, mercury, arsenic, stuff like that. when we throw them in the trash, they go into our landfills and leach into the soil and our water. when we “recycle” them, industry insiders say 80 percent of the e-waste material is exported, and 90 percent of that material goes to china. there it gets stripped by hand for every reusable bit of plastic or metal. including lead, it seems. makes me think long and hard about buying unnecessary electronic gear. and also makes me wonder what to do with that big old monitor sitting in our basement.
here’s the link i was looking at if you want more info: http://tinyurl.com/2hfht5
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