Someone posted this link today: Toddlers becoming so addicted to iPads they require therapy

And I had to give a long response, the more I thought about it, the longer it got. And now I’m making it even longer.

You should see me throwing a look of death when hubby touches my iPad. Or if the battery goes dead but I want to sit outside. They are so EASY to use! It’s been a running joke since the VCR was invented that kids understand technology better than adults. My thought has been, since I now have friends and family with young ones who also have smart phones and/or tablets: are they created to be so easy, or are they easy because some (not all!) of us are willing to learn? My dad is in his 70’s and loves computers. But daily, I have to tell people (over the phone, how hard is that?) how to copy and paste – and they can’t be as old as my dad. I had one who was just back from maternity leave. How can you be young enough to have a baby but still not know how to copy and paste? These children will never have that problem.

Maybe these kids will be the next-generation equivalent of Jobs and Gates, because they have had this fabulous thing their whole lives. They will be able to think, and invent, in ways that us old farts never conceived of because a touch screen and Skype didn’t exist when we were three. Maybe they will be behind the times because by the time they are 18, we will have the same level of technology access by eye movements or subdermal implants. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll be normal adults, the same as us who stared at MTV for hours turned out. Is it an addiction, or is it the future?

This is our i-thingie collection: second, first and third gen phones, and my precious, precious iPad – which you will pry out of my cold dead hands. Or, you know, take away and set aside nightly when I fall asleep.