Anytime anyone tries to hornswoggle you with a product or a service or a public policy which he describes as “smart,” turn around and walk the other way. ‘Cause what’s “smart” for them is gonna be bad for you! You know–like “smart growth” is going to destroy your town.
The FBI has warned consumers about “spy toys” or “smart toys” packed full of sensors, cameras, microphones, and GPS locators which can record children’s conversations, track their movements, and show their locations (https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4043182/fbi-issues-urgent-warning-over-spy-toys-which-put-privacy-and-safety-of-children-at-risk/). Click the Sun article for the names of toy companies that are selling these.
We are not told exactly who is watching, listening to, and tracking these children. The Sun dares to use the world “perverts”–which I’m sure is hat speach and like so un-inclusive…
We are also not told what kind of schlumpf buys something like this for his kids. So what was so bad about a plain old teddy bear?
Boy, does Godlessness bear strange and bitter fruit! All this crazy s*** springs from our self-imposed estrangement from Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can save us from it.
None of it is really smart at all.
Smart devices, phone, tablets, toys, you name it, all seem to include a microphone and a way to transmit information over the Internet. In some cases, this is probably innocuous; case in point being the application I use to track the speed and calories burned during my bike ride. But these gadgets can be misused and data gathered almost always ends up becoming data used.
Add the element of children into the mix and the risks go off-scale. Children should be supervised by their parents, not monitored by God only know whom.
Avoiding these toys seems to be the best course of action, but I’m sure that will be nearly impossible soon enough. We have ‘spy toys’ in most of our homes already. In fact, it hadn’t occurred to me until quite recently that computers actually brag about this, but making it sound oh-so-desirable. ‘Intel Inside’ – and not for our benefit!
As a side note, the “smarter” the toy is, the duller (I almost said “dumber”) the child is going to be. “Dumb” toys stimulate the child’s imagination to make the toys do, be, or represent many different things. “Smart” toys leave nothing to the imagination and in fact program the child to act in the way the toy operates.
When I was a child, we girls could play endless games with a piece of chalk (for drawing or mapping things out on sidewalks, keeping score, etc.), a rubber ball, a few bobby pins or bottle caps (for place markers in sidewalk games), and a length of clothesline (jump rope, stagecoach, etc.). Boys would add a jackknife (mumbledy-peg, whittling, etc.) and a broomstick (stickball). Boys and girls alike played with marbles, jacks, and pick-up sticks. Indoors, a blanket or bedspread thrown over chairs or tables made playhouses, fortresses, and mazes.
And then, of course, there was the usual running around and yelling, chasing each other, climbing things, hanging upside down from railings, falling down, etc. Somehow, we never ran out of ways of having fun, without having any “smart” toys. In fact, we were smart enough ourselves to keep making up new games.
It’s not just smart toys its smart everything: tvs, phones, cars, refrigerators, even houses. They are collectively called the “internet of things”. This poses to two concerns. One is hackers who could hack these devices and cause chaos. The other is abuse by the powers that be. The technocrats want everything chipped and connected to the internet, that way it can be monitored and controlled. The latter scenario represents some scary possibilities.
I’m not a fan of many modern toys. Modern toys tend to be computerized with lots of action, but no space left over for imagination.
When I was a boy, I had Tonka Trucks. I built miles of imaginary highways, dug innumerable tiny postholes and plowed real snow with the blade on my toy International Scout. I built plastic model cars, which were a wonderful creative outlet. I built an elaborate cabin with Lincoln Logs which even Pa Cartwright and the boys would have admired. There were Tinker Toys an Erector Set and a Kenner Girder & Panel set which allowed me to build miniatures of modern styled buildings. If memory serves, that last one even allowed me to make a miniature oil refinery.
Te common thread in all of these was the fact that they stimulated imagination. They also allowed me to practice skills which would come in handy as an adult. Designing and building toy things is a great way to prepare for designing and building. Those skills are foundational to the things I do daily at my job.
These push-a-button, robotic toys strike me as being anything but stimulating to the imagination.
Oh, boy, Kenner Girder & Panel! My brother had that–hours of fun for us, on the sitting room floor.
I miss having it.