An Ode to a New Generation: "Goodnight iPad"

“In the great green room

There was a telephone

And a red balloon

And a picture of

The cow jumping over the moon…”

We all had this bedtime story favorite read to us when we were little:  “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wiseman Brown.  Published in 1947, it’s a simple book, more ritualistic than it is an actual story.  Yet at the same time, it is this that drew us fondly in as children and lulled us to sleep.  Nowadays however, it reminds us of a simpler time when books were actually beckoned by children for their parents to read for their enjoyment.  In our now technologically driven society, what must it take to excite the uneasily impressed tech-savvy youth generation?

An ode to a new generation, author David Milgrim, under the clever pseudonym, “Ann Droyd,” writes a clever and playful parody of the beloved children’s book in which he calls, “Goodnight iPad.”  The story instead revolves around an elderly granny bunny trying to cope with the constant use of iPads, Nooks, Blackberrys, laptops, and other devices.  Queuing bedtime, she encourages them to “power down” and say goodnight to all their beloved devices.

In his parody, Milgrim plays at a general truth of today’s society.  That is, that we are too reluctant to “power down.”  We become so dependent on the technology that drives us that we forget the simple joys of life: bedtime stories, “red balloons,”  “the cow jumping over the moon.”  Instead we rely on the “beeps” and “clicks” to entertain us throughout the day until we tire ourselves out.

The book is worth the quick read and provides a good laugh at where we are now in society.    You can buy the book now in stores, but of course it is also available as an eBook as well as a narrated miniclip on Youtube.