By Ramadan Abdel Kader
Forget hip-hop, tango, waltz and salsa. The dancing cactus has arrived and is all the rage.
Over recent weeks, a toddler-targeting toy, taking the shape of a cactus placed in a pot, has grown immensely popular and trended on social media.
Videos went viral, showing the green cactus swaying and even singing, generating high sales. Its prices have soared to as much as 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about 63 dollars), according to some media reports.
The toy has achieved wide popularity among children and adults alike. Fans have hailed it as an amusement tool and a distraction from scorching temperatures, wildfires, climate change worries and devastating wars. The toy dances to any music or chat in the vicinity wherever it is installed — at home, the office or the car. Some people see it as a good tool to ease pressure at the workplace.
Young fans have posted online their pictures while tackling the fashionable battery-operated toy.
Menia about the “dancing cactus” seems to be global.
The other day, the media reported that a Polish mother, visiting a store in Taiwan, had been astounded on finding that a singing cactus toy was rapping and swearing about cocaine in Polish.
The toy’s manufacturers contended that the dancing cactus is child-friendly, “stimulates children’s creativity” and keeps them amused for hours.
Specialists see the situation differently and sound the alarm about potential harms.
“The ‘dancing cactus’ toy is for amusement, not for education,” Dr Mahmoud Youssef, a professor of speech therapy at Ain Shams University’s medical school, said.
He warned that the toy can deepen the child’s isolation. “It increases the child’s isolation. On the pretext that the mother is busy with her house chores, she resorts to this toy to keep the child distracted,” he told Egyptian private satellite television Al Hayat.
Children’s obsession with the “dancing cactus” can also lead to behaviour problems, according to Dr Hesham Rami, a professor of psychological medicine at the same university.
“Like any other artificial intelligence toys, it is OK if this toy is used within the normal limit. The problem lies with overuse, which is as dangerous as watching animated cartoons for too long,” he said.
According to him, the toy can isolate the child from the world around him. “This alienation hampers proper psychological and social well-being,” Dr Rami said.
He also warned that the weird sounds made by the toy could affect the child’s language skills.
