The problem I see emerging in children is one of decreasing frustration tolerance. I have spent some time pondering this matter, and I have some thoughts I would like to share, hoping to stimulate some serious thinking about this issue. Psychiatrists are taught that frustration tolerance is an ego strength that human beings need in order to make a successful adaptation to life. The exponential technological advancements of recent years have afforded the possibility for young children to achieve instant gratification at the touch of a button. An 18 month old can turn on the TV and instantly be entertained by music, dance, interesting shapes and colors, adults, cartoon characters etc.
Technology meets magical thinking and enhances it by making it real.
This type of experience is further facilitated by doting parents, who are awed by what their children hear and repeat to them. Parents provide increasingly more elaborate video games, TV's and entertainment centers in their children's rooms, where the kids can cocoon themselves in their multimedia environment. Those same kids go to the ATM with the parent and sees real money emerge from a machine with the use of a plastic card and the touch of some buttons. While most children cannot appreciate the fact that many work hours are needed to provide the money so easily retrieved from the ATM, the easy availability and accessibility of cash distance them even further from that concept. Many children are now on the Internet receiving almost instant responses to queries.