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American Morning
Look at Toys That are Hot This Year
Aired December 18, 2001 - 07:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now it's time for us to turn our attention to children and the toys that bond -- the toys that are hot this year. Move over Barbie and GI Joe, what kids today really want is a robot to love -- well, at least according to some market research.
The sale of virtual pets and toy robots jumped 200 percent this year compared to the year before -- now, while sales of traditional toys were up just 4 percent over the same period. These days, make believe never felt so real, but some worry that kids are becoming too attached to these techno toys.
MIT professor, Sherry Turkle, has studied how people and technology inter-react. She's in Boston this morning -- thank you very much for being with us this morning.
SHERRY TURKLE, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Thank you.
ZAHN: You don't think there's anything dangerous about parents giving these pets -- these techno pets to their kids, do you?
TURKLE: No, I don't think there's anything dangerous at all, as long as the parent helps the child make the distinctions among these toys and others, because for children, the toys can go into a category of sort of alive that for some children can become confusing.
ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
TURKLE: But as long as the child gets a good mix...
ZAHN: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
TURKLE: ... as long as the child gets a good mix, no danger.
ZAHN: Sorry about the little delay there. Now, I know you've had the opportunity to actually talk with kids, who have either played with these toys...
TURKLE: Yes.
ZAHN: ... or have been given them on loan. What are their attitudes towards the Furbys and these robots? TURKLE: Well, the first thing that it's important to say is that these toys are part of a larger picture. The children live, whether on the screen or in Disneyland in a culture of simulation, so that when I take my seven-year-old daughter to Italy, and she looks in the water, and she says, "Look, mommy, a jellyfish, it looks so realistic." That notion of the realism gold standard somehow not being there and the jellyfish, that's the culture that these kids live in. And in that context, they meet these toys and they sort of fall in love with them a bit.
ZAHN: Now, so how is that any...
TURKLE: They sort of fall in love with them a bit.
ZAHN: Yes. How is that any different from a little girl falling in love with a dog that, you know, chews food and cries and a doll that you have to burp and these robots?
TURKLE: Very different. These dolls -- the robotic pets press our buttons to respond to them in the same ways that we respond to pets and people. That is to say that they ask us for nurturance, and when a child gives nurturance to an object and has that object be gratified, that child is toast in terms of feeling a loving connection with the child. It's the nurturance button -- the asking for nurturance, the needing nurturance and the flourishing that really is the new dimension.
The Raggedy Ann is passive, and the child projects onto that doll what that child needs that doll to be. Maybe one day, the Raggedy Ann needs to be punished. Maybe one day the Raggedy Ann needs to be angry at the child. These other dolls, these new dolls, these robot dolls, have their own agenda and give the child a lot less room for an open imaginative space, but a lot more connection through pushing those buttons of engagement.
ZAHN: But the bottom is, as you just (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the statistics, these toys are so popular. What is driving that popularity?
TURKLE: The seduction of that feeling of mutual recognition with a toy. That like the robots to come, these -- which will meet your gaze, recognize your face, meet your gaze, track your eyes and make a gesture towards you, all of which things signal us biologically (UNINTELLIBLE) that we are with a kindred other. These toys begin to push those buttons, and it is very seductive.
So it really is an opportunity through the fact that these toys are starting to come into our culture to begin to ask ourselves what kinds of relationships do we think is appropriate to have with machines. For example, you give Furbys to older people -- people in nursing homes, and you watch them cuddle them. And somebody comes up to me and says, well, does it work? You know, what do we mean by work? What are we asking these toys to do for us that may be people should be doing instead or pets?
ZAHN: Well, it's a fascinating... TURKLE: It raises a lot of moral questions.
ZAHN: Yes. Once again, I apologize for the delay there. It's a fascinating thing to think about...
TURKLE: Yes.
ZAHN: ... because I think the advertising for these toys is quite seductive as well. So Sherry Turkle, thank you for your time this morning. By the way, have you found a better alternative for your own daughter?
TURKLE: Actually, I like computer games where kids build something.
ZAHN: Yes, that's...
TURKLE: To build something -- kids make something. So she does -- I think that's a very good thing to do with a computer. So she does a lot of games where she makes things and builds things.
ZAHN: Well, I hope we didn't tip her off what she's going to get for Christmas this year. Sherry Turkle...
TURKLE: I hope not.
ZAHN: ... thank you for your time this morning.
TURKLE: Thank you.
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