You know, a lot of the kids books out there are educational, and some of them, even if you don’t realize it, you end up picking up facts about history, nature, and all other stuff. And I’m not talking about Harry Potter or other stuff like that. I’m talking more about the younger kids stuff.
But yes, it is true that if you “deprive” a child from something they will gravitate to it. I remember chalishing to go to my grandparents to watch a “video”, or sneaking the soda from the fridge during the week. But that’s how children are. Curiosity is just a part of them. How many of you had teachers who said “okay we’re skipping the next perek in chumash/navi and someone went home and looked in artscroll or the little medrash says and came to school the next day and told everyone what the perek was all about? That’s just how kids are.
But its not a klal gadol. Neither myself or my sibling every had a gameboy, or anything like that, and I do not remember ever wanting one. I don’t think I even tried playing gameboy – maybe once, but that’s it. And I remember thinking that the kids who were addicted were pathetic. I mean, there’s a reason why certain camps banned gameboys — the kids were spending their activities sitting on the grass next to the courts playing gameboy instead of sports.
Doc, yes there are a lot of worse things than these gadgets that kids can be doing when they’re bored, but if your kids dont know about them, they wont want to do them. Do you think that the kids in Meah Shearim are bored out of their minds? No, they find lots of good things to do with their time.
And as for the computer thing – my parents approved all of the computer games that we played, and when they saw something wrong with a game, they took it away. They also gave us a reasonable time limit, and after we were finished with our homework, if we asked permission, then we could play more.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with all these new electronic “zachen”, but I don’t feel I had a “deprived childhood” cuz i didnt have a tv, or gameboy, or xbox, or whatever else there is. And quite frankly, I don’t think my younger sisters feel left out either.