Is Technology Limiting Children's Creativity?

Traveling back at least ten years in time, I can still remember back when I was a kid in elementary school. One of the best parts of my days were the free-play time I had after school when I got home. I would round up all my stuffed animals and load them onto the school bus, which was actually just my bed. I would "drive" them to school, drop them off, and transform into their first grade teacher where I would role-play and hand out made-up assignments and even have Q&A sessions with them. Other times, I would sit in a laundry basket and scoot around the house in order to save the stuffed animals that were lost in the sea, or on the carpet floor. For the most part, I pretended that each and every one of these stuffed animals were real, especially after having watched the movie Toy Story at least twenty times. Each day after school, I spent my time creating different scenarios and activities for me and my stuffed animals. Looking back, I realized that this imaginative free-play time was cut down once I had access to a computer. I began playing on websites such as Barbie.com which was entertaining, but did not exactly provide the same imagination engagement. It was all about clicking different tools and already-made designs to customize the Barbie dolls. But these are all just my own experiences. 

 Here's what an expert says on this subject matter:
Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a university professor of childhood development and the author of the book, "Taking Back Childhood", believes that it play is crucial to children's growth in brain development and creativity, along with involving the senses. In her Washington post article, "Is technology sapping children's creativity?" she argues that kids learn through direct play and hands-on experiences, while technology does not involve the whole child's body, brain, and senses. To put her arguments in simpler terms:

• Children should have play time with open-ended materials such as blocks, play dough, art material, sand and water, in order to build and encourage creativity.
• Children also need first-hand engagement, which means they need to practice using their five senses through physically playing and interacting with things present in the real world.
• Though there are many educational apps for games and activities found within electronic devices, they cannot replace the ways of learning concepts through play and  face to face teaching.

I believe that play time is extremely important in the way that children grow and develop. At the same time, having a little bit of technology to enjoy and enhance some aspects such as learning and adapting to new developing tools is also okay. As with everything in life, things should be done in moderation!