Good NYT article on the changing face of the toy business – “Having failed to beat the electronics industry, the ailing toy business will join it in a big way in the year-end holiday shopping season, offering just about everything from cellphones for 6-year-olds (LeapFrog) to video projectors for 8-year-olds (Hasbro) in an effort to hold on to children who are casting aside Lego and GI Joe to play with their parents’ gadgets.” Link.
2 thoughts on “As gadgets replace toys, what’s in it for kids?”
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My fear is that this will lead to a lack of creativity on the part of kids. GI Joe and Legos especially made you come up with situations and solve problems. Gadget toys like Game Boys and the like are linear; they don’t allow kids to make up their own worlds, just live in the worlds they created.
But kids are just as creative as ever just within new mediums, the internet with proper suppervision can give kids access to whatever interests them that day. I can’t imagine what it must be like being a kid and every question i could come up with could be answered with google. If they want to make a toy for kids (or adults i guess) make an answer machine, ask it any question and it figures it out via google or some mega db. NOW that would be the toy of the century.. and i call dibs to make it…