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Exposing Children to Technology?
LabelThis asks: "While I'm not a huge fan of immersing children in technology, there is a certain point at which you must expose them to the tools that will help them be successful in the world. Looking back, I distinctly remember my parents making every effort to provide a computer for me and my sibling, early on (they bought an Atari 400 for us when I was 5). Either by accident or on purpose, that single decision (and the continued follow up of purchasing newer computers as needed) shaped my future and the future of my siblings. I now have a daughter, and my wife and I have a number of years to before we worry about equipping her with technology (right now spending time with her and helping her be a happy well adjusted toddler are our primary concerns). In the spirit of my parents choice, what type of tools should parents be equipping their children with, today?"
My parents gave me plastic bags when I was very young. I expecially liked the full-body dry cleaning ones. For my 4th birthday they game me an old refrigerator with a locking door. I loved it.
Trolling is a art,
"That was because your parents didn't have much money right? Wrong."
No, it actually WAS because my parent's didn't have much money, you smug bastard.
I recommend getting her an SGI Tezro workstation, while SGI's still around. She'll be awed by the stylish enclosure and rocksolid IRIX operating system running on an XFS foundation. As her pre-school colleagues grapple with color precision and flawed volumetrics, she will be smooth sailing by the smooth CFD visualizations on her scientific-grade machine. As SGI folds during her later years, she'll appreciate your foresight in giving her a piece of computing history. Don't be late; start her off on a real computer.
what type of tools should parents be equipping their children with? ;-)
"Technology" is not a synonym for "computers".
Dang! I was going to say "weapons", but now I can't. Thanks for spoiling it, eh?
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
Whoah, imagine what a whole brother could do.
Play Command HQ online
While I'm not a huge fan of immersing children in technology...
I am. Dump 'em in a vat of PDAs and see what burbles up.
Any program relying on (nontrivial) preemptive multithreading will be buggy.
Bleah, people put too much emphasis on creation. Most real stuff is just rote and mindless. You should have your kids out picking cotton or removing weeds and rocks from the field. Not everyone can be a self-absorbed artiste with a portfolio of original drivel. Odds are your kids, despite whatever advantages you pretend to give them, will end up losers, just like everyone else you know, including yourself. Sure, you can attempt to build a fantasy world for them were what they do matters. You can also pull gold nuggets out of your butt and fly to Venus on a candy cane fire truck. Ok where's mah meds?
No kidding...
Stop overindulging your kids, you jerks. Don't spend time or money on them, those things are much too precious to be wasted on children
Spend time and money on YOURSELF. Obviously your needs and wants are much more important than anything your whiney brats could possibly be concerned with.
It just sickens me when I think the money my wife wastes on my kids...hockey equipment, swim lessons, zoo passes, books...jeez...that money could be much better spent on getting ME more RAM!
For a 7 year old boy, "self-expression" means jumping up and down on the couch yelling, "I am the Butt-Master! I will fart on you!" at the top of his lungs, and then laughing so hard with his 5 year old brother that he goes short of breath, staggers into the dresser and cracks his head so hard that he not only cuts his forehead, but knocks the lamp over so it smashes on the floor, which makes him sit down in crying, hysterical pain while his little brother is scrambling out of the room on hands and knees, because he can hardly stand himself from the effect of deep belly laughs being suddenly wrenched into the need to get the hell out the vicinity before Dad comes upstairs from his workshop to find out what that crash was before the 2 year old starts to play with the broken glass... and the 3 year old is trying to get Dad's attention so she can tell on her borthers while Dad is cleaning up said broken glass, holding back said 2 year old, bandaging said cut on 7 year old's forehead, and calling for said 5 year old so he find out if he's bleeding, too.
All this with a couch and a $30 lamp. Imagine what they'd be able to do with a $1500 computer.
So, I would say the whole "self-expression" thing is really overrated. These days, I really like the "knock it off and behave yourself" model.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain