What does the future hold?

I visited my cousins this weekend. When I arrived at their house, Eliza who is seven greeted me at the door. She immediately asked me to play with her in her room. I hesitated, thinking that I would be forced to act out a puppet show or play dress up with her dolls.

I was surprised to learn that Eliza no longer plays with dolls or puppets; they bore her. Instead we powered up her IPad and opened a couple of tabs.  After skimming through her list of Pandora stations and eventually deciding on Selena Gomez Radio, she began “playing”. The game entailed dressing a doll and sending her out on various excursions.  

It’s important that you all understand that Eliza is no snob.  In fact, she possesses an unusual amount of empathy for someone her age. However, if you didn’t know this about her, you may get the wrong impression from watching her on her IPad. She was so fixated on the virtual world in front of her that she forgot I was there. So, when her brother asked me to play with him, I did. He led me to his room, sat down in the middle of the floor and grabbed his IPod Touch.

I’d like to reiterate the fact that these are small children… When we were that age, I remember playing games that involved some sort of human contact.  Could it be that our ability or desire to communicate directly with others is diminishing even as we speak?   Are we losing the ability to interact with the real world altogether?