Obsession with gadgets blinds us to the wonder of nature
- By Wan Lixin
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, May 27, 2015
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The new toy [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn] |
With summer vacation just one month away, many parents are occupied with thoughts of how to keep their kids busy during this period of learning limbo.
No doubt many children will be packed off to summer camps of various sorts, or else sent on trips with relatives. There was a time though when children could be safely left by themselves outdoors.
Typical kids today — provided they are old enough to hold a tablet computer or other mobile device in their hands — do not like the idea of being outdoors. The mother of a 13-year-old boy told me last week that her son will refuse to go outside, even when he's forced to.
Sadly, the delights of nature seem lost on many of the youngsters reared in the brave new cyber age.
Many parents dangle inducements of various kinds to keep their kids outside. Travel is one common way to get children out of the house. But on any trip, e-gadgets are essential to keep antsy or bored children pacified.
When I spoke to my own son recently about going on a trip ourselves, he replied: "I couldn't care less about where we go. I'm only interested in the kind of hotel we stay in and the view from the window when the plane takes off."
Unfortunately, we don't need to go too far to see how smartphones — and technology in general — have come to symbolize the only meaning of our life. On May 13, a 21-year-old youth in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, allegedly committed suicide after a taxi driver drove away with his iPhone.
Nature can teach
Such phenomenon are not unique to China.
An article published in the Guardian in January reported that several well-known British authors were "profoundly alarmed" about the replacement of "natural" words with words "associated with the increasingly interior, solitary childhoods of today," in the new edition of Oxford Junior Dictionary.
Citing research findings, the article claimed that a generation ago, 40 percent of children regularly played in natural areas, compared to 10 percent today — while a further 40 percent never play outdoors at all.
These authors argued that "A," "B," and "C," should stand for acorn, buttercup and conker, rather than for attachment, blog and chatroom.
Love of nature used to be part and parcel of Chinese education.
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