I know this is an old article, but never too late to comment I suppose! :D
I really disagree with this article, as I believe it presents many things in deceptive ways. Roblox creators make millions is a preposterous claim - Roblox makes billions, creators make peanuts, and children's labor is exploited. The YouTubers, and celebrities in general that we hear about are the few that succeeded - sure it worked out for them, but what about thousands (millions?) of kids who put in the effort, did not get lucky, and ended up with harmed social skills, and without anything to show for it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ)? It's like saying "children should go into American football as a career, look at all the successful athletes" while ignoring the injuries that it causes and how many are left much worse off, and how short term the gain is (Bo Burnham's famous take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JgG0ECp2U). I believe that the future that we are going towards will require less technical knowledge (as AI will take over coding and understanding of the tech itself) and it will be much more important to have your priorities straight, to have a healthy social life, to know right from wrong. These will be skills in demand, and these are skills that you learn mostly offline. Don't get me wrong, I grew up on videogames, and I can go on for hours on how some of them are pure art (Pathologic, SpecOps the Line, Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead 1, Undertale, and I am sure I am missing some, but that's a start for those interested). However, seeing the recent post of an engineer and how easily he was tricked by AI into thinking about it as a conscious being (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kQFure4hdDmRBNdH/how-it-feels-to-have-your-mind-hacked-by-an-ai) makes me believe that it is the strength of will that is necessary, power to be mindful and not give in to your urges, things that videogames are generally quite bad at teaching, on a meta level. I am open to other arguments, but to me this post is more dangerous than presenting a balanced view (although I suppose the links underneath do balance it out by showing the other perspective). I am afraid someone who already finds it hard to limit screen time of children will read this and relax fully, and harm their children hoping they end up as the new Bill Gates, and they end up abused by corporate greed by the likes of Facebook and Roblox and without marketable skills or personal growth.
Same here! Spectrum 128k with Batman, Robocop, Bubble Bobble the list goes on. We then upgraded to an Amiga and this changed everything for me...
Like you Kev, the 56k modem opened up a whole weird world of IRC (which my dad was the master of...He was the RAR finder.) The BIOS and command line tinkering lead me to a active learning journey that has never ended.
I now have 2 children (4 and 2yr) and both are very attracted to screens (like all children I guess) and I can't wait for them to be of age to be able to play with me!
I defintely owe my career in web to the fact my parents bought a Commodore Vic 20 that I mucked about with from a very early age. I had a Spectrum +2a, then a few consoles ... but the Amiga was defintely the thing that cemented everything. Not just games, but Deluxe Paint and Octamed just generally dicking about.
I didn't experience the internet until I was 17. Which is, quite frankly, mental. Especially onsidering how integral it has become to everything in my working life.
I'm in the middle on screen time. I love it. I know it's benefits ... I know it's disadvantages, so I also king of hate it. I've got older kids ... my daughter is 13. YouTube is the thing we struggle with. YouTube is incredible. But it's also the absolute worst. And the way it's set up that it just sucks you in for hours and hours and hours and hours ... i don't like it. Some of her friends have had unlimited access to it from a ridiculous age ... and the unregulated, unmonitored access to all that content is not right.
A lot of stuff is also very passive. Tech is is passive now. Everything just works, and is instant. Like you mentioned there's not of that tinker around with obscure config files and BIOS settings ... She's started doing a bit if HTML in school. That has been amazing to see, to actually be able to properly help with homework for once! But even the Chromebook she uses for school makes it difficult to easily tinker about at home.
Then there is social media. Which is a minefield of its own. I love the creativity and the platform it provides ... but human nature doens't half spoil it.
The nerd in me wants them both to be able to embrace it. The parent wants me to just hide them from it and keep them safe.
They both love Pokemon (my son is 9). Which is interesting. They are both into Minecraft too. Though my daughter seems to almost prefer watching other people play ... which is something that I sort of get, but am also baffled by.
Steadfastly resfused to allow her a phone until she was 11 and there are lots of rules attached to that. It's all connected via Family Link.
Douglas Adams was pretty spot on when he said "Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
Even though I LOVED screens. My childhood also had a lot more outdoor time. (Even if you ignore this weird Covid period). I was out playing on my own from probably 5 years old. And I mean well away from parents gazes. Which is utter madness by todays standards.
Not sure where this going ... but yeah ... I am mostly in favour of screens. Up to a point. Balance an all that.
It’s interesting raising three little ones and teaching high school at the same time. I look at my students, listen to their conversations, and inevitably start to make comparisons: “Oh yeah, he is EXACTLY like my son.” Recently, I asked my students how old they were when they first were allowed to play on a gaming console. Their responses were kept private, but my haunting suspicions were confirmed. In general, students who (in my view) exhibited delayed or just plain awkward communication skills were the ones who received the console the youngest. (3rd-5th grade)
Of course, there is little doubt in my mind that if I were to interact with these students in a different world, like a metaverse, they would be virtually unrecognizable. And maybe that’s okay!
As long as we’re talking about what ifs… What if the communication skills developed in a metaverse become just as valuable as communication skills outside of that metaverse? I mean, this is not convincing me to let my kids anywhere near technology for quite a while, but as your article correctly presumes, it’s important to keep an open mind. It’s shocking how tech is evolving at a blistering pace right now. We’ll have to revisit this post in a couple years, lol.
I like your approach. I think we should all be open to new windows that we can’t see the views just yet.
We go back to that balance we are struggling to find.
I personally think that kids under 8 should not be exposed to electronics and let their brains grow playing with dirt, rocks, and sticks. First 7 years of life should be the most natural experiences in a child’s life. First create a healthy base, than get step by step to modern days… without nature we can’t be humans.
Not going to lie: this is the first article that I read of yours that I 100% disagree with. I’ve become more and more of a Luddite as I age, or really as my children age. A bigger part of me every day awaits a Snake Plisken in Escape from L.A. moment. Alas.
Damn, I wish I had an Uncle Gerry... But that pleading for upgrades and shamlessly trying to convince my parents that buying a copy of Warcraft II was somehow good for my education.
I took my love of video games to art school and wrote dissertations on gaming culture as the last legitimate sub-culture (with specific semiotics, language, I guess this was a and that was back in 2004... now its not even a subculture. It's just culture. Quite incredible.
I ended up working for Rockstar North for a few years (not as anything glamorous but a QA tester which meant I played GTA for 60 hours a week...) and left to become a designer. Funny how those paths in life seem so obvious in retrospect.
I think Matt Webb (ex-BERG) put it nicely when he said, the UI of today are informed by people who grew up using excel and word... imagine what they'll be like when they are designed by people brought up on Minecraft. I think we're starting to see it now.
Was it someone here talking about giving their kid all the consoles and games they played as kid, but in order? So they put them on a ZX spectrum at 2, then NES at 4, then Xbox at 8...
I know this is an old article, but never too late to comment I suppose! :D
I really disagree with this article, as I believe it presents many things in deceptive ways. Roblox creators make millions is a preposterous claim - Roblox makes billions, creators make peanuts, and children's labor is exploited. The YouTubers, and celebrities in general that we hear about are the few that succeeded - sure it worked out for them, but what about thousands (millions?) of kids who put in the effort, did not get lucky, and ended up with harmed social skills, and without anything to show for it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ)? It's like saying "children should go into American football as a career, look at all the successful athletes" while ignoring the injuries that it causes and how many are left much worse off, and how short term the gain is (Bo Burnham's famous take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-JgG0ECp2U). I believe that the future that we are going towards will require less technical knowledge (as AI will take over coding and understanding of the tech itself) and it will be much more important to have your priorities straight, to have a healthy social life, to know right from wrong. These will be skills in demand, and these are skills that you learn mostly offline. Don't get me wrong, I grew up on videogames, and I can go on for hours on how some of them are pure art (Pathologic, SpecOps the Line, Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead 1, Undertale, and I am sure I am missing some, but that's a start for those interested). However, seeing the recent post of an engineer and how easily he was tricked by AI into thinking about it as a conscious being (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kQFure4hdDmRBNdH/how-it-feels-to-have-your-mind-hacked-by-an-ai) makes me believe that it is the strength of will that is necessary, power to be mindful and not give in to your urges, things that videogames are generally quite bad at teaching, on a meta level. I am open to other arguments, but to me this post is more dangerous than presenting a balanced view (although I suppose the links underneath do balance it out by showing the other perspective). I am afraid someone who already finds it hard to limit screen time of children will read this and relax fully, and harm their children hoping they end up as the new Bill Gates, and they end up abused by corporate greed by the likes of Facebook and Roblox and without marketable skills or personal growth.
Same here! Spectrum 128k with Batman, Robocop, Bubble Bobble the list goes on. We then upgraded to an Amiga and this changed everything for me...
Like you Kev, the 56k modem opened up a whole weird world of IRC (which my dad was the master of...He was the RAR finder.) The BIOS and command line tinkering lead me to a active learning journey that has never ended.
I now have 2 children (4 and 2yr) and both are very attracted to screens (like all children I guess) and I can't wait for them to be of age to be able to play with me!
I defintely owe my career in web to the fact my parents bought a Commodore Vic 20 that I mucked about with from a very early age. I had a Spectrum +2a, then a few consoles ... but the Amiga was defintely the thing that cemented everything. Not just games, but Deluxe Paint and Octamed just generally dicking about.
I didn't experience the internet until I was 17. Which is, quite frankly, mental. Especially onsidering how integral it has become to everything in my working life.
I'm in the middle on screen time. I love it. I know it's benefits ... I know it's disadvantages, so I also king of hate it. I've got older kids ... my daughter is 13. YouTube is the thing we struggle with. YouTube is incredible. But it's also the absolute worst. And the way it's set up that it just sucks you in for hours and hours and hours and hours ... i don't like it. Some of her friends have had unlimited access to it from a ridiculous age ... and the unregulated, unmonitored access to all that content is not right.
A lot of stuff is also very passive. Tech is is passive now. Everything just works, and is instant. Like you mentioned there's not of that tinker around with obscure config files and BIOS settings ... She's started doing a bit if HTML in school. That has been amazing to see, to actually be able to properly help with homework for once! But even the Chromebook she uses for school makes it difficult to easily tinker about at home.
Then there is social media. Which is a minefield of its own. I love the creativity and the platform it provides ... but human nature doens't half spoil it.
The nerd in me wants them both to be able to embrace it. The parent wants me to just hide them from it and keep them safe.
They both love Pokemon (my son is 9). Which is interesting. They are both into Minecraft too. Though my daughter seems to almost prefer watching other people play ... which is something that I sort of get, but am also baffled by.
Steadfastly resfused to allow her a phone until she was 11 and there are lots of rules attached to that. It's all connected via Family Link.
Douglas Adams was pretty spot on when he said "Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
Even though I LOVED screens. My childhood also had a lot more outdoor time. (Even if you ignore this weird Covid period). I was out playing on my own from probably 5 years old. And I mean well away from parents gazes. Which is utter madness by todays standards.
Not sure where this going ... but yeah ... I am mostly in favour of screens. Up to a point. Balance an all that.
It’s interesting raising three little ones and teaching high school at the same time. I look at my students, listen to their conversations, and inevitably start to make comparisons: “Oh yeah, he is EXACTLY like my son.” Recently, I asked my students how old they were when they first were allowed to play on a gaming console. Their responses were kept private, but my haunting suspicions were confirmed. In general, students who (in my view) exhibited delayed or just plain awkward communication skills were the ones who received the console the youngest. (3rd-5th grade)
Of course, there is little doubt in my mind that if I were to interact with these students in a different world, like a metaverse, they would be virtually unrecognizable. And maybe that’s okay!
As long as we’re talking about what ifs… What if the communication skills developed in a metaverse become just as valuable as communication skills outside of that metaverse? I mean, this is not convincing me to let my kids anywhere near technology for quite a while, but as your article correctly presumes, it’s important to keep an open mind. It’s shocking how tech is evolving at a blistering pace right now. We’ll have to revisit this post in a couple years, lol.
byMihaWrites byMiha’s Newsletter ·just now
I like your approach. I think we should all be open to new windows that we can’t see the views just yet.
We go back to that balance we are struggling to find.
I personally think that kids under 8 should not be exposed to electronics and let their brains grow playing with dirt, rocks, and sticks. First 7 years of life should be the most natural experiences in a child’s life. First create a healthy base, than get step by step to modern days… without nature we can’t be humans.
Do we want to become virtual avatars?!?!
Loved your article. Nicely done.
Not going to lie: this is the first article that I read of yours that I 100% disagree with. I’ve become more and more of a Luddite as I age, or really as my children age. A bigger part of me every day awaits a Snake Plisken in Escape from L.A. moment. Alas.
hahaha that GIF at the end, amazing.
Damn, I wish I had an Uncle Gerry... But that pleading for upgrades and shamlessly trying to convince my parents that buying a copy of Warcraft II was somehow good for my education.
I took my love of video games to art school and wrote dissertations on gaming culture as the last legitimate sub-culture (with specific semiotics, language, I guess this was a and that was back in 2004... now its not even a subculture. It's just culture. Quite incredible.
I ended up working for Rockstar North for a few years (not as anything glamorous but a QA tester which meant I played GTA for 60 hours a week...) and left to become a designer. Funny how those paths in life seem so obvious in retrospect.
I think Matt Webb (ex-BERG) put it nicely when he said, the UI of today are informed by people who grew up using excel and word... imagine what they'll be like when they are designed by people brought up on Minecraft. I think we're starting to see it now.
Was it someone here talking about giving their kid all the consoles and games they played as kid, but in order? So they put them on a ZX spectrum at 2, then NES at 4, then Xbox at 8...