There was a time when keeping a child entertained meant telling them a story.
5 Oct 2026 | 12:06 Today, keeping a child occupied can be as simple as handing them a phone or tablet. Because imagination needs something very simple: space.
A parent would begin with, “Once upon a time…” and before long, the child would be asking questions, adding characters and deciding what happened next. A few taps, and there is an endless stream of stories, games, and entertainment. As a father of a young child, I often think about what we gain from that convenience and what we might be giving up.
They were told by parents and grandparents at bedtime, in the back seat of a car, during family gatherings or simply when a child came asking, “Tell me a story. The same story could change every time it was told. When a child hears about a castle, they have to picture it. When someone describes a dragon, the dragon exists first in their mind. When a story pauses before its ending, the child gets to decide what happens. That little gap between what a child hears and what they imagine is where something powerful happens. They begin filling in the blanks. They create possibilities. They learn that a story can have more than one ending. Think about the stories many of us remember from childhood. A child might interrupt with a question. A parent might invent a new character. The child might decide that the villain was actually misunderstood. Someone might forget the ending and make up a new one. The story became a shared experience, shaped by the imagination of everyone in the room. Technology has made entertainment immediate, visual and endlessly available. That convenience has changed the way children experience stories, and it also gives us an opportunity to rethink what technology could offer them. Technology has changed almost every part of childhood, from the way children learn to how they discover music, play games, and communicate. AI is now beginning to change something even more fundamental: the way technology itself interacts with us. For children, this creates an interesting possibility. Instead of experiences being entirely predetermined, they can become more fluid and responsive. A story can adapt to a child’s interests. A character can have a conversation. A familiar tale can open into an entirely new adventure. Technology becomes a medium through which imagination can unfold, rather than simply a destination for attention. This also changes the way we should think about screen time. The conversation has often focused on duration: how many minutes a child spends on a device and how those minutes compare with other activities. I think the quality of the experience deserves equal attention. Two experiences can take the same amount of time and leave very different things behind. One might simply fill an hour. Another might inspire a child to continue playing, drawing, inventing, or telling stories long after the experience ends. For parents, this does not mean creating a technology-free childhood. It means becoming more intentional about the experiences we introduce into it. A simple starting point is to make space for activities where the child supplies some of the imagination: reading aloud, pretend play, inventing stories together, listening to audiobooks, or creating characters and worlds of their own.
Today, children have access to an extraordinary amount of content from a very young age.
It also means looking beyond the traditional distinction between “screen time” and “passive screentime. As technology evolves, there will be experiences that sit somewhere between passive entertainment and active play. Parents can look for products and platforms that encourage conversation, creativity, movement, exploration, and independent thinking. The role of the parent matters here too. Sometimes the simplest intervention is to join the experience for a few minutes, follow the child’s lead, and see where their imagination takes them. A story can become a drawing. A character can become a game. A question can become a conversation that continues through the day. This is where I believe the next chapter gets particularly interesting. We are beginning to see the emergence of a new ecosystem for children, bringing together physical play, storytelling, audio, AI, characters, books, and learning. Each has existed independently for decades. Technology now gives us the opportunity to connect them in ways that feel natural to a child. A child might encounter a character in a book, hear its story through an audio experience, play with a physical version of it, and then return to that world through an interactive conversation. The boundaries between a toy, a story, and a digital experience become far less rigid. That is the kind of thinking that led us to Wippi. We are exploring one small part of this larger shift: what happens when beloved characters move beyond the page and become conversational while helping reduce passive screen time. For me, the larger opportunity goes well beyond any one product. It is about creating a childhood where technology adds new dimensions to the things children have always loved: stories, play, curiosity, imagination, and the freedom to create their own worlds. As a father, that feels like a much more exciting direction for technology to take. Perhaps the real question for the next generation is not how much technology children will use, but what technology will help them become. Rishabh Singhi, Co-founder, Wippi You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test Get the latest Lifestyle News and more. Download the TOI app.