Is 4 years old too young to have a tablet?

[Quiethen427]

Yes. I don't think I'm too resistant to technology. I'm typing into a computer now anyway, but I really think there is an extent where it's harmful. I'm not old, I'm of this tech generation. It's been shown in studies that kids are becoming less and less able to communicate directly to other people. People are experiencing direct reality less and less. They go camping and experience the sunset through the screen of their phone. I sit in a room with a group of people and look around me and they're all locked in to their digital reality, their eyes are on the device, their ears are plugged into the headphones and they really don't know what's going on, which means they aren't really there. They are in Facebook, or whatever they're looking at, but they are completely there, that's the only thing they're experiencing in that moment. Then it gets so some people are actually experiencing the digital reality more often than they're experiencing actual reality, they exist primarily in the tablet.
This little girl is in her most formative years now, and maybe you think that this is just the future and that digital reality can overtake actual reality and humanity will be better for it, in which case you wouldn't take my advice, but if you believe there is fundamental importance in a regular connection with real reality, I suggest you don't get her this now. She'll be really deep in it if she gets it now.
I think it would be a very good idea to get her an instrument. Playing music does the opposite of what facebook/twitter/texting communication does. Musicians are better at communication than the average person(even the average person who does not spend half or more of their time connected to some device) so, if you get her an instrument, she'll have a leg up in the ability most kids are losing to be intuitive, creative, to pick up on subtle cues from others and make close, warm, immediate connections with other people.