Today in TechiPad vs. TV: which is better for your kids?
Should every child in America have an iPad? That's what a rather provocative article over at Cult of Mac editorialized this weekend, to cries of both support and astonishment in the comments. The main gist of the argument is that the iPad is a better interactive learning tool than one of the main alternate activities that seems to get a free pass with many parents: watching television.
Blogger Mike Elgan shares statistics about how much TV consumption trumps time spent in formal education (1,500 hours of TV annually vs. 900 hours in the classroom), and posits that the iPad is an excellent substitute. The iPad features less harmful advertising (particularly for junk food), interactivity, portability (the iPad can be brought outside), skill-building and learning applications, and the ability to take advantage of parental controls for age-appropriateness, he argues.
Feedback to the post ranges from enthusiastic agreement to resounding calls for getting children away from screens and outside to play or engaged in other activities in the "real world." We're inclined to agree with the primary sentiment that time spent on the iPad is probably more valuable to children's developing brains than time spent sitting in front of today's television programming, but we are far more interested in what you think. Is the iPad a good replacement for TV in kids' lives? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
More from Tecca:
