Check in comments how they celebrate not having kids... If you can't live simply with kids, then simple is not good way to live :).
As an aside, having an ipad seems to help keep the baby entertained with interactive books, music, TV shows, musical instruments like drums and pianos. I can see apps do away with many physical items the way digital music has done away with the CD - which I think is a positive thing as it reduces waste.
I hope you change your mind if you have kids. Living life in a 7" box is sad.
Another way to look at it is that he wouldn't have most of those toys if they were physical items - a free piano app beats that $20 toy piano that his mum glanced at in the shop and decided not to buy because she needs to buy more nappies.
It's also interesting how, because touch-input results in a direct and near-instant output, that it can be understood by an infant quite rapidly. To them an app is a real mechanical object.
Personally, I can't picture my childhood without those "injection-molded fossil fuel by-products" called LEGO.
He lives in a three-dimensional world, so I don't think he's missing out on any of those things. I'm not arguing for the elimination of physical toys - merely observing that apps have their utility and are less wasteful, resource wise.
> A cheap rubber toy piano might very well be better than an app.
Depends - physical things have a certain barrier to ownership: money. The toy he never had is easily beaten by the free/99c one off the app store. The fact that a tablet is expensive isn't lost on me, but for the amount of utility it has served it's basically paid for itself (it's his dad's tablet).
> Not to mention that they're easier to share with other kids.
Sharing is important, but it's worth noting that with apps you can have collaboration - he and I can play instruments together (like the free split screen piano or guitar apps) or play basic games all on a single screen. Of course physical things do this as well - my intent is to show that apps can be treated like physical objects.
> Personally, I can't picture my childhood without those "injection-moulded fossil fuel by-products" called LEGO.
My nickname is Uncle LEGO - he won't be missing out on that stuff. He's stuck with DUPLO until he's older though.
My kid's preschool had an idea of "loose parts" (for example: http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/2010/...) in which a selection of physical objects (buckets, balls, tables, blocks, boxes, ramps, branches) was placed in a large play yard for open-ended construction. The kids were allowed to do whatever they decided to do with the parts. They would build some things up across several days (without being directed).
It's important to understand that, to make this work, you don't put out everything at once. For a week, you put out a few things that go together. Then they go in to storage, and you take out a different assortment. It has to rotate, or else it becomes part of the landscape and is not used.
To do this, you need to have a considerable amount of storage space, and a staff that is energetic enough to wrangle the stuff. But the stuff itself is rather inexpensive and, by design, simple.
The same kind of ideas hold, on a smaller scale, in households.
I didn't suggest abstracting away toys. I made a prediction/observation that apps could "do away with many physical items [...]" and that it might be a positive thing if it reduces waste.
In my following responses, the implication was that touch interfaces are perhaps seen as mechanical by infants as they can touch something and it produces an immediate and repeatable result, mimicking how real world objects work. Again, I was making an observation (right or wrong), not a statement.
Lastly, with virtual toys being cheap and varied, it allows an infant to explore many different concepts that they normally wouldn't be exposed to because of economic factors (e.g. $20 toy vs free/99c app).
At no point have I suggested getting rid of toys - which would be both outlandish and impossible.
Ipad is wonderful educational device, I am amazed with what my kids are doing with it. And I am all for simpler life in my life as well, within reason of course. And kids :).