Children are Less Creative

Today Business 2.0 has a ‘Hits & Misses’ quip on the slow and steady demise of Barbie, a demise that no one seems to comprehend … except me! Barbie is not failing, children are failing Barbie.   Kevin Gray is a brilliant toy designer at Mattel toys, and Peter Hesseldahl is a technologist for LEGO VisionLab and we all had conversations on the decline of creativity in our youth.

LEGO sells more ‘Kits’ designed to build a moon rover or pirate ship, and fewer boxes of random blocks where children can create their own inventions. Matell sells toys that have stories behind them, like dolls based on movie characters. It speaks to the inability of our kids to create their own play. They need to be spoon-fed play!

This is relevant because it is a chilling look into the future of our economy. Americans, generally speaking, will lack the fundamental creativity to dream up the next big project, or search for a scientific revelation, design a new generation of technology, or even creatively problem solve. Creativity is one of this country’s core competencies and we can not allow it to slowly erode.