Hey Kids: This Summer, Ditch the Gadgets

The Internet and iPads and smartphones are great for adults—but we need to take a hard look at what they're doing to our kids, warns a computer science professor at Yale. It may be tempting to let them sit down with an iPad come June, but such technology is preventing their minds from doing what they need to do: "rest and work," writes David Gelernter in the Wall Street Journal. Rest means "wandering freely," while work requires a climb up a "mental rope."

Our smartphones and video games and web browsers prevent that from happening, argues Gelernter. "The web is the perfect anti-concentration weapon. The instant you get bored, just click or tap and you are someplace else," he writes. What's more, "the whole point of modern iToys is to increase irresistibly the appeal of sitting inside by yourself and doing nothing." A kid can easily turn into a "click-vegetable." To prevent that, parents should consider a gadget-free summer. Read his full column here. (More gadget stories.)