I'm convinced that the next couple of decades are going to be very difficult ones for parents throughout the Western world, simply because our priorities have become skewed due to pressures beyond our presumed reach.
When I was public school, I was in a Gifted program. It was a hard experience, mostly because you're labeled "different" and "strange" due to the fact you loved reading up on history, science and other "nerdy" topics. The sense of isolation was so bad sometimes that there were days when you'd trade in all those intellectual skills you were given just so you could get along with people more easily. I know the easier way was to confine myself to watching TV (something I did far too much) and reading books - distinctly non-social activities. I spent a lot of time wondering what was wrong with me instead of really trying to deal with the problem. Being a kid and feeling like your only true friends were "things" as opposed to people is one of the worst experiences of modern childhood. It's not like instant pain; it's like a sustained, slow burn into your self-confidence and self-esteem. It's taken my years to get over it and I'm still not entirely there, but believe me I want to succeed.
I know the only way I got through it was through my mom, who really tried to help me get involved in sports (softball, floor hockey, still loads of fun) and other outside activities. I knew I was born different and that was hard for me, but I worked hard and tried to become more social on an intellectual level, as opposed to an instinctual level that many other people seem born with.
Truth be told, I've made mistakes along the way and there are times when I've felt socially underdeveloped in comparison to other people my own age. But I've worked hard and I feel like I'm doing better. I've earned multiple university degrees, got a great job, a lot of good friends now, I work out, a rich full life and a wonderful, supportive partner. I'm refusing to let past hurt defeat me. I know my childhood was better because of my mom.
What's the point of this? I'm worried that technology could isolate permanently a lot of kids if their parents are too busy, too harried to sit down with them to have dinner, help their kids with homework, talk to them and let them feel loved and supported. I don't think I'm perfect now by any means - no one ever is - but I know for a fact that if my mom hadn't been there to help steer my childhood in a positive way, I'd be in far, far worse shape today. Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is ultimately artificial, a replica of reality that simply can't replace the real and wonderful experiences that make life worth living. Kids need balance now more than ever in a world that regularly broadcasts such media events as 9-11, Paris Hilton and 50 Cent - hardly examples of media's power to inform and shape the mental environment. If you can't help guide them towards a balanced lifestyle when they're kids, how do you expect them to live that way as adults? Through powers of suggestion? Through merely "getting on with it?" No way, not going to happen.
Wow. That's all I can say. This has to be one of Apple's best products - kudos to Apple, you understand our needs completely!
I'm even more excited because this will take wireless out of the hands of Wi-Fi start-ups (i.e. the ones that inexplicably charge people for Wi-Fi) and put it in the hands of people who benefit from wireless. Even better, this will give people motivation to buy that laptop, because now they can set up wireless base stations virtually anywhere.
This may sound like hyperbole, but a product like this could have a similar effect as did the iPod. So then lies my only question: when is this product going to be available in Canada? Because if any Apple people are reading this, the customer base in Canada is hungry for stuff like this.
Because concerts are performed for paying customers, you can't re-distribute a concert for free due to copyrighted content being performed live. Unless the artist, tour promoter and record company all agree that a concert can be distributed as a "bootleg" without proprietary consent, it's essentially akin to going on P2P servers or taping a movie - you're taking intellectual property without consent, which is a crime.
I couldn't agree with this article more. I think computer science should be a mandatory high school credit after this experience.
I was a technical manager for a major media conference and I had to work with someone who was, by her own admission, completely technophobic (scary part: she was the conference's media contact!) She was completely unreasonable with her demands on the conference web site. She asked me to teach her how to build and maintain a site, but that went nowhere. After awhile, I had to prevent her from logging into the conference's web server out of fear of her making radical (and dangerous) overhauls to the site. Finally, she managed to screw up sending a document via courier on a CD that was corrupt and unreadable. My solution? I contacted the tech guy at the company the document was originally to be sent to, logged onto FTP, sent it via the web - it was done in five minutes.
I also had to make an advertisement via layout and graphics programs - she had no idea how the programs worked, what these programs are even capable of doing, and what looks good (and not so good) from a design point of view. I went through a series of battles with her, trying to make her realize that what she wanted was impossible.
The kicker came when we had to get web access at the conference. I set up the internet in a hotel room for all the organizers to use, as it had been designated the "war room" and my director wanted it there. So I set it up for them. She calls me on our two-way cell and goes crazy on me for not setting up the web in *her* room. This, after I had spent the first day of the event getting everyone their cells, organizing laptops, getting a PowerPoint presentation finished, and setting up a major A/V system at a huge federal government building and battling with hotel staff in figuring out how to get past their firewall to log into a high speed web connection (this hotel wasn't the most cooperative in giving me instructions).
Finally, my director had enough and told her to quit harping on me about it. She was pouty for the rest of the event, giving me the cold shoulder and assuming it was my fault that I didn't set up her precious web access in her room.
And here's the last bit on info: this girl was only 23. So not all twentysomethings know computers. Only the incompetant ones.
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I completely agree with this post.
I'm convinced that the next couple of decades are going to be very difficult ones for parents throughout the Western world, simply because our priorities have become skewed due to pressures beyond our presumed reach.
When I was public school, I was in a Gifted program. It was a hard experience, mostly because you're labeled "different" and "strange" due to the fact you loved reading up on history, science and other "nerdy" topics. The sense of isolation was so bad sometimes that there were days when you'd trade in all those intellectual skills you were given just so you could get along with people more easily. I know the easier way was to confine myself to watching TV (something I did far too much) and reading books - distinctly non-social activities. I spent a lot of time wondering what was wrong with me instead of really trying to deal with the problem. Being a kid and feeling like your only true friends were "things" as opposed to people is one of the worst experiences of modern childhood. It's not like instant pain; it's like a sustained, slow burn into your self-confidence and self-esteem. It's taken my years to get over it and I'm still not entirely there, but believe me I want to succeed.
I know the only way I got through it was through my mom, who really tried to help me get involved in sports (softball, floor hockey, still loads of fun) and other outside activities. I knew I was born different and that was hard for me, but I worked hard and tried to become more social on an intellectual level, as opposed to an instinctual level that many other people seem born with.
Truth be told, I've made mistakes along the way and there are times when I've felt socially underdeveloped in comparison to other people my own age. But I've worked hard and I feel like I'm doing better. I've earned multiple university degrees, got a great job, a lot of good friends now, I work out, a rich full life and a wonderful, supportive partner. I'm refusing to let past hurt defeat me. I know my childhood was better because of my mom.
What's the point of this? I'm worried that technology could isolate permanently a lot of kids if their parents are too busy, too harried to sit down with them to have dinner, help their kids with homework, talk to them and let them feel loved and supported. I don't think I'm perfect now by any means - no one ever is - but I know for a fact that if my mom hadn't been there to help steer my childhood in a positive way, I'd be in far, far worse shape today. Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is ultimately artificial, a replica of reality that simply can't replace the real and wonderful experiences that make life worth living. Kids need balance now more than ever in a world that regularly broadcasts such media events as 9-11, Paris Hilton and 50 Cent - hardly examples of media's power to inform and shape the mental environment. If you can't help guide them towards a balanced lifestyle when they're kids, how do you expect them to live that way as adults? Through powers of suggestion? Through merely "getting on with it?" No way, not going to happen.
Wow. That's all I can say. This has to be one of Apple's best products - kudos to Apple, you understand our needs completely! I'm even more excited because this will take wireless out of the hands of Wi-Fi start-ups (i.e. the ones that inexplicably charge people for Wi-Fi) and put it in the hands of people who benefit from wireless. Even better, this will give people motivation to buy that laptop, because now they can set up wireless base stations virtually anywhere. This may sound like hyperbole, but a product like this could have a similar effect as did the iPod. So then lies my only question: when is this product going to be available in Canada? Because if any Apple people are reading this, the customer base in Canada is hungry for stuff like this.
Because concerts are performed for paying customers, you can't re-distribute a concert for free due to copyrighted content being performed live. Unless the artist, tour promoter and record company all agree that a concert can be distributed as a "bootleg" without proprietary consent, it's essentially akin to going on P2P servers or taping a movie - you're taking intellectual property without consent, which is a crime.
I couldn't agree with this article more. I think computer science should be a mandatory high school credit after this experience. I was a technical manager for a major media conference and I had to work with someone who was, by her own admission, completely technophobic (scary part: she was the conference's media contact!) She was completely unreasonable with her demands on the conference web site. She asked me to teach her how to build and maintain a site, but that went nowhere. After awhile, I had to prevent her from logging into the conference's web server out of fear of her making radical (and dangerous) overhauls to the site. Finally, she managed to screw up sending a document via courier on a CD that was corrupt and unreadable. My solution? I contacted the tech guy at the company the document was originally to be sent to, logged onto FTP, sent it via the web - it was done in five minutes. I also had to make an advertisement via layout and graphics programs - she had no idea how the programs worked, what these programs are even capable of doing, and what looks good (and not so good) from a design point of view. I went through a series of battles with her, trying to make her realize that what she wanted was impossible. The kicker came when we had to get web access at the conference. I set up the internet in a hotel room for all the organizers to use, as it had been designated the "war room" and my director wanted it there. So I set it up for them. She calls me on our two-way cell and goes crazy on me for not setting up the web in *her* room. This, after I had spent the first day of the event getting everyone their cells, organizing laptops, getting a PowerPoint presentation finished, and setting up a major A/V system at a huge federal government building and battling with hotel staff in figuring out how to get past their firewall to log into a high speed web connection (this hotel wasn't the most cooperative in giving me instructions). Finally, my director had enough and told her to quit harping on me about it. She was pouty for the rest of the event, giving me the cold shoulder and assuming it was my fault that I didn't set up her precious web access in her room. And here's the last bit on info: this girl was only 23. So not all twentysomethings know computers. Only the incompetant ones.