Who Would Choose A Doll Over An iPod

In an article on Time.com titled The Hottest Holiday Toy Is not What You Think, Brad Tuttle talks about how the greatest source of income this holiday season is no longer toys. For awhile now our society has been getting more and more tech savvy. This happens to also extend to children. They’re no longer sitting and circling all the toys they want in a Toys ‘R Us catalogue like they used to. 

I remember when I was younger every holiday season there was a specific toy that I wanted to own. The most expensive one that I ever got was a doll called Amazing Amanda. I’m pretty sure my parents payed almost $100 for it. Now, paying that much money for a doll seems so outrageous. But, at that time the doll was very advanced in technology because it could recognize voices and her face expressed different emotions. After that doll though, I started asking for gadgets instead. First I asked for an iPod, then a digital camera, a laptop, a cellphone, and so on. Like this article states, kids today are more fascinated with being connected to the internet or involved on magical adventures in their video games. It wouldn’t make sense for them to pick plastic  toys that they have to pretend are alive when they can fight a battle virtually or connect to Twitter or Facebook.

Recent statistics show that the second greatest source of revenue on holidays is in fact electronics. The first one is gift cards. This makes me wonder whether this is how things will be from now on. I know that with fashion it’s sort of a cycle and that styles that were in ten years ago become popular again in the future, so is it possible that could happen with what kids ask for on Christmas? My best guess is that won’t be the case. Our society is constantly pushing for more and more technology. There are apps for everything, internet connection basically everywhere, even teachers use social media for assignments, so it wouldn’t make sense that we’d regress. And so, perhaps the days of the “hottest new toy” are in fact over forever. Now the market is practically monopolized by Apple products and gift cards. 

I would never have imagined that at the short age of 17 I’d have a preconceived idea or memory of Christmas, but our society changes in such a short amount of time that some of my younger relatives won’t ever understand the concept of paying $100 for a doll.