The age of making a friend out on the old school yard is over. Instead, welcome the new age of making a “friend” within the comforts of your own home with the new Hello Barbie. No longer will little Cindy have to fight with Jessica over which member of One Direction is the cutest, and Billie can avoid all the drama of the diaper gang by spending his free time with his new companion. Sounds great right? Wrong. The new conversational Barbie takes society one step closer to social isolation, teaching children that they can talk to an inanimate object instead of their peers.

The first days of school are remembered for making companions, but with the new Hello Barbie, kids will not need to. First seen in a video of the Hello Barbie that was displayed at the Mattel showroom at the North American International Toy Fair in New York City once a child begins to play with the doll it connects to the surrounding Wifi and the bonding begins. The doll listens to the child talk to gather information about her likes and dislikes. Then, the doll sends the information it retrieves up to the cloud to store it in order to be able to form proper responses to the child over time, just like the brain of a child’s friend would do.

Interaction between children is important, leading to positive and social and emotional development. One day we, ourselves, will send our children off to school hoping for lasting relationships amongst their peers.

“Even during preschool, [children] are more popular, have stronger friendships, and are included more often in classroom activities than children who lack these skills,” as researched by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Education, a project funded by the Child Care and Head Start Bureaus in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Children will spend their whole life talking to people not objects; their lives shouldn’t by sending information to the cloud. When children begin to develop socialization skills it is already a problem for schools. They find it too easy to entertain themselves.

“Even as infants, we tend to look for a personal interaction with a human, and that is what the Barbie is giving the child,” said Claire Vallotton Ph. D., assistant professor of early child development and research methodology at Michigan State University.

“When children play in a group it’s not a personal conversation, it’s everyone all together. With the Barbie, it’s all about the child. They are going to be more drawn to that type of interaction,” Vallotton continues.

This oh-so-perfect body and mind manipulating toy is about to take shelves in the fall and play time is about to be diminished as Barbie fills in the role of a play date.

Barbie is meant to be a toy, not a companion, and that she should stay.