The Familyman
 Now that I’ve gotten rid of my iPhone I’m a little out of touch with the app world. I loved the few apps that I had in my past life though. My favorite one showed me every Wal-Mart that allowed RVs to park overnight. But alas … I gave up my apps and my slim 4G buddy for my family … sniff sniff.
Now, my life is app free and uncluttered. That said, I know there are gobs of apps out there designed to engage your children in learning. And while I truly believe there may be some great benefits in using the apps, I wonder if there are some detriments as well.
There’s no denying that we live in a technological world. It has permeated every aspect of our lives. That’s the rub for me. I’m just not sure that I want it in every nook and cranny of my children’s lives.
Just this morning while we were getting ready my son Cal (7) asked, “Can I play euchre on your phone?” Now euchre can be a brain-stimulating activity and the temptation is to say, “Sure,” but I didn’t. Instead I said, “No.” He whined and then went downstairs and built a fort with his brother … which in my estimate is way better than playing a card game on the phone. In fact, I don’t like my kids wasting real time by looking through photos, listening to music, or playing solitaire on some gadget. By allowing them to do so, I think we train them to be dissatisfied with real life … and drive them to use apps to waste time. Hang around the airport, bus stop, or anywhere else and you’ll see a throng of app-using zombies tapping away on their phone, never realizing there is a real person right beside them.
So yes, there are lots of apps that encourage learning, but that doesn’t mean it should replace the old-fashioned kind of hands-on, real life, people-interacting learning. Sure, apps are easy, but everything that is easy is not always best … in fact, it rarely is.
That’s all this old guy has to say.
Be Real,
Todd
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