iPad-Clutching Toddlers Will Determine World's Fate (Really)

The iPad is a hit with toddlers — even four-year-old Suri Cruise was spotted playing with one. Believe it or not, kids’ innate ability to use iPads will affect all of us.

In old movies about the future, computers were often noisy, mammoth devices with blinking lights and lots of buttons. It took a skilled person — not a kid — to operate such a contraption. Even in the ’80s, the nerds of Weird Science made a doll come to life by typing the correct commands. There was no mouse to point or click. But as technology has become more advanced, it’s become simpler to use. People who don’t know how to get rid of the blinking 12:00 on the VCR can send text messages. And kids can use iPads. In fact, according to AdAge:

Research PBS conducted with the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania showed that kids don’t discern between screens.

Indeed, after using the iPad, a PBS board member observed a kid trying to pause a show by touching the bottom of the screen, as they would on an iPad.

Right now, we use touch screens at the bank, the movies and the airport, and it makes sense that the interface would become even more ubiquitous — as seen in the oodles of YouTube videos documenting how easily kids use iPads, anyone can point and poke. And a generation of kids will grow up thinking that’s what you do to a screen.

Toddlers: The New iPad Whizzes, Addicts [Newser]
How The iPad Became Child’s Play — And Learning Tool [AdAge]
Nadia and an iPad Game [YouTube]