PETER Mullen looks back at playing out in the streets as a golden age in his column headed "Too many gadgets rot the brain"

(Echo, Sept 11). He did that because there wasn't anything else to do as today's gadgets hadn't been invented.

I never wanted to "run about a bit" as I hated sport as many of my friends did. We liked technology.

That didn't make me, in his insulting words, "half mad or frighteningly obese".

Does he really know what teenagers use the gadgets for?

Using them supplements what is taught in school to prepare children for a technologically-driven world.

My 16-year-old nephew had a computer from when he was five, so he has grown up confident in its use, has many friends and uses it for social networking where he can share interests and enjoy today's form of modern "free unstructured play".

The networking he does is to organise going out to meet his friends and even when his next five-a-side match is so that he can "run about a bit".

So I am thankful our children are embracing gadgets as it is one of the most important forms of self-education, especially with the wonder of the internet.

Colin Jones, aged 44, Spennymoor, Co Durham.