{"id":42664,"date":"2026-06-19T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=42664"},"modified":"2026-06-20T07:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:32:54","slug":"toy-story-5s-lilypad-is-an-indictment-of-the-world-that-birthed-the-ipad-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/toy-story-5s-lilypad-is-an-indictment-of-the-world-that-birthed-the-ipad-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Toy Story 5\u2019s \u2018Lilypad\u2019 is an indictment of the world that birthed the \u2018iPad Kid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aarushi Bhandari<\/a>, Davidson College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the trailer for \u201cToy Story 5<\/a>,\u201d a little girl named Bonnie is playing with her toys when a package arrives in the mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She opens it to find Lilypad, a tablet for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic toys from the series \u2013 Woody, Buzz Lightyear, the Potato Heads, Forky and Slinky Dog \u2013 then watch in dismay as Bonnie casts them all aside in favor of the bright tablet screen. Rex the dinosaur exclaims, \u201cWhat? Extinction? Not again!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film zeros in on a uniquely 21st-century phenomenon: the \u201ciPad kid<\/a>,\u201d a term used \u2013 often disparagingly \u2013 to describe a generation of children who grew up enchanted by screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the discussion around tablet use among kids shames parents<\/a>, framing it as an example of lazy or bad parenting. Yet factors such as long working hours and lack of access to affordable childcare<\/a> compel many parents to rely on tablets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of the attention economy<\/a> \u2013 and also as a mom to a 4-year-old \u2013 I\u2019ve noticed a disconnect between the resources U.S. society offers parents versus what\u2019s expected of them in the digital age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic and the \u2018square au pair\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the first \u201cToy Story\u201d came out in 1995, many single-income families could still afford<\/a> to comfortably raise multiple kids. It was more common for new parents to live near their extended families, such as grandparents<\/a>, to provide childcare support. Federal policies provided some low-income families with cash assistance<\/a> that helped ease the cost of transition to parenthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, parenting has become a lot more challenging. Single-income households<\/a> with kids under 18 have steadily declined as wages have stagnated, forcing both parents into the workforce. At the same time, it\u2019s harder to qualify for government benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even when moms do earn a paycheck, working moms experience what sociologists call the \u201cmotherhood penalty<\/a>\u201d \u2013 career disadvantages, such as lower wages and promotion barriers, due to childbirth \u2013 even as U.S. parental leave policies remain weak<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s hardly a surprise that fewer Americans are choosing to become parents under these conditions<\/a>. But those who did have kids in the years leading up to 2020 ran smack into the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lockdown that started in March 2020 following the outbreak of the pandemic led to closures of schools and many workplaces. Many parents either worked from home or provided critical work in grocery stores and hospitals. Kids stayed home and schools transitioned to remote-learning models<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to remember that many institutions with social legitimacy and authority encouraged the use of tablets during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School systems around the world normalized their use for remote learning<\/a>. Children as young as 4 were given tablets<\/a>, which gave their parents space to complete their own remote work and other household tasks, with some moms referring to it as \u201cthe square au pair<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this sense, the tablet became a form of school-sanctioned childcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic activity was minimally disrupted. Productivity hummed along. And the kids? Comfortably distracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some households, there\u2019s little choice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When lockdowns ended, tablets remained integrated<\/a> into the education system. In 2021, 4 in 5 U.S. households<\/a> with children had a tablet. Beyond schoolwork, kids also use tablets for activities, such as video games<\/a> and watching TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adverse impacts of excessive screen time in general has been well documented<\/a> for decades. But scholars have only recently unpacked the specific harms of interactive tablet use among young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children who use tablets are more likely to experience emotional dysregulation<\/a> and dependency<\/a> on screens. Researchers have also found tablet use among kids to be significantly associated with ADHD diagnoses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, research shows screen time use among children is tied to social class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents from working- and middle-class households are more likely to rely on screens compared to high-income parents<\/a>, who can hire childcare services, such as full-time nannies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parental education<\/a> is also a factor. Americans generally have little grasp of digital hygiene<\/a> \u2013 knowledge about best practices to minimize negative effects of screens. But households with parents who didn\u2019t graduate from college are even more in the dark<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while schools hand out tablets, most of them fail to provide students and families with a comprehensive education on the adverse impacts of excessive screen time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, this isn\u2019t a Generation Alpha<\/a> problem. Most people \u2013 adults included, with or without children \u2013 aren\u2019t properly educated and informed about their choices around technology use. Yet adults continue to be shamed<\/a> if they hand their kid a tablet. All the while, parents navigate the added burdens of challenging the educational status quo around tablets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankenstein\u2019s village<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When work is the only sturdy pillar in a society where government benefits for low-income people, family ties and community institutions have eroded, tablets replace the metaphorical village<\/a> \u2013 the web of social support that helps families thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In pursuit of jobs or affordable housing, many young parents move farther from their extended families<\/a> and the communities where they grew up. The working parents who are forced to rely on daycare \u2013 sending kids as young as a few weeks old<\/a> \u2013 end up spending an exorbitant amount of money on the service<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Some parents have no other option but to send their infants to expensive daycare \u2013 often staffed by underpaid workers who are moms themselves. Pat Greenhouse\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the persistence of traditional gender roles ensures that many moms still go home to a second shift<\/a>: Working women continue to disproportionately<\/a> cook, clean and care for children. No matter how overworked or exhausted some parents<\/a> are, they cannot afford to hire help as the inflation and cost-of-living crises<\/a> hit historic highs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Tech takes advantage of this crisis with a \u201csolution\u201d that ultimately treats children as products, manipulating their emotions and mining their data<\/a>. As I argue in my book, \u201cAttention and Alienation<\/a>,\u201d children\u2019s dependency on screens is a key component of the attention economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earlier a life is monetized, the longer it is profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToy Story 5\u201d and its critical take on the tablet may be helpful. But it will take more than a blockbuster movie to protect small kids from the harms of too much screen time<\/a>. Instead, I think it will require strong parental leave policies, expansive and affordable childcare access, fair wages and shared household labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, there needs to be a full rehabilitation of the village<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aarushi Bhandari<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aarushi Bhandari, Davidson College In the trailer for \u201cToy Story 5,\u201d a little girl named Bonnie is playing with her toys when a package arrives in the mail. She opens it to find Lilypad, a tablet for children. The iconic toys from the series \u2013 Woody, Buzz Lightyear, the Potato Heads, Forky and Slinky Dog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":42665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,30,8025,7,291,825,42,10,25,39,8],"tags":[330,4305,132,3439,4694,5448,865,932,885,891,886,860,2225,1034,17857,2240,17859,17858],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42666,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42664\/revisions\/42666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}