President Obama encouraged children not to spend too much time on their smart phones and video games, and spend more time reading and writing.
Kids today, he explained, were using their smart phones for entertainment instead of learning.
“You’re texting all day, you’re looking at Vines, and Instagram, you know, you’re looking at Grumpy Cat, or some video of your favorite singer or rapper,” he said, pointing out that more information than ever was reaching young people.
He explained that he wanted more of that information to be educational, allowing more and more children to access e-books on their electronic devices.
But he also explained that children had to be curious and have a “hunger for learning” if they were going to be successful.
“You can have the nicest computer in the world, and the best books in the world, but if you’re lazy, and sittin’ around just playing video games all day, not really interested in it, well you’re probably not going to be a great student.”
Obama also urged children in the audience to get more curious about science and math in school, especially the girls.
“Particularly for the young ladies here, I want you guys to make sure that you look at math and science,” he said. “It’s not because they don’t know how to do it; it’s because sometimes they’re discouraged, the idea being that somehow that’s traditionally more of a boy thing.”
“That’s something that we’ve got to get rid of,” he added.