Future Fictions: parenting in 2025

What impact will digital technologies have on the children of 2025? This video has some ideas…

Ah, Easter weekend. A chance for many people to gather together with the family for four days. Or, in the case of my family, my wife and I are staying determinedly at home, enjoying time with our two little girls, before my wife returns from maternity leave.

It’s a time for fun and play. But how will play change over the next decade?

Toy company Fisher Price have come up with this speculative look at what parenting – and play – might look like in 2025:

Some of it feels deeply plausible: 3D printing toys at home? Yup. I can see that.

Some of it is familiar – that pervasive idea of all glass becoming a screen is there. I’m not sure we’ll see that in the next 10 years, but I’d be happy if we did.

Holographic baby toys

The holographic, baby-soothing light displays? I doubt that’s going to be with us within the decade.

When technology, the home and play intersect

There’s more to the vision than just the cute video, though. You can grab a PDF with some detailed thoughts about the ideas and technologies that drive the products shown in the video.

For example:

Future play experiences will seamlessly merge the physical activities with enhanced digital experiences throughout different environments. As the people that use them grow, so too will the experiences.

Which is all a rather pretentious way of saying “Augmented Reality will enhance play experiences” – and it will, although I worry that using these technologies too early will make it harder for a child’s developing brain to understand the reality of the physical world. Or will AR interactions be so common by then that it doesn’t matter?

For all its sweetness, this video does challenge us to think about how pervasive technology could – and should – be in the next generation of children’s up bringing.