Today, toys that usually don’t have a typical connection to technology are newly wired. There is a new generation of stuffed animals and dolls that are now tied to internet sites so that children can cuddle and dress them one minute, and then go online to social-network them the next minute. Over the past five years there has been a siginifigant increase in the number of technology enabled toys available to children that make the original Tickle Me Elmo and Baby Born look like ancient relics. Kids have become key consumers, so it is only natural that children’s toys would move with the same pace as adult technology.

Some parents as well as some in the educational field, may feel that with so much technology a child does not have the opportunity to truly be creative. It seems that everything is either already done for them or is easily done by pushing a few buttons. Years ago preschool and kindergarten were mostly about play. Today parents expect their child’s daycare to have at least two or three computers along with a good curriculum for learning. Some toys may be educational, but what do kids think of these toys? “Many who have studied children and toy technology, say that kids have a real fascination with new technology. When engaged in creative play with technologically enhanced toys they can learn and have fun. While that may be true, the question is – are they really having more fun than other children did before all this new toy technology, or have they just been “programmed” that way?