Sherry Turkle är en av föregångarna när det gäller att diskutera barn och datorer. Hon hör inte till de inskränktas skara.

Thus my worry for kindergarten-tech: the shiny objects of the digital world encourage a sensibility of constant connection, constant distraction, and never-aloneness. And if you give them to the youngest children, they will encourage that sensibility from the earliest days. This is a way of thinking that goes counter to what we currently believe is good for children: a capacity for independent play, the importance of cultivating the imagination, essentially, developing a love of solitude because it will nurture creativity and relationship.

In our still-recent infatuation with our mobile devices, we seem to think that if we are connected, we’ll never be lonely. But in fact, the truth is quite the opposite. If all we do is compulsively connect, we will be more lonely. And if we don’t teach our children to be alone, they only know how to be lonely.

I worry we have yet to have a conversation about what seems to be a developing “new normal” about the presence of screens in the playroom and kindergarten. When something becomes the new normal, it becomes hard to talk about because it seems like second nature. But it’s time to talk about what we want childhood to accomplish.