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I think this is it for a lot of people. I played insane amounts of video games as a kid. Getting up at 5am before school just to play more Age of Empires. But

I think this is it for a lot of people. I played insane amounts of video games as a kid. Getting up at 5am before school just to play more Age of Empires. But once as an adult I had other stuff to do that fulfilled my need to build and accomplish things, I stopped playing more or less naturally, except the occasional social game with a far away friend. Kids have almost zero avenues to build or accomplish things. Their parents don't care or give them meaningful stuff to work on or tools to build stuff with. They might as well be under house arrest. They have no way of seeing their friends except in-game because they must get their parents to drive them everywhere. Even if they drove to their friends house, they have nothing to do with them except play games. We fail children everywhere by disallowing them from having meaningful stuff to do.

selestify 8y ago
What kinds of meaningful stuff are kids even capable of doing?
- phyzome 8y ago
  What kinds of meaningful stuff are adults even capable of doing? What kinds of meaningful stuff are you even capable of doing?
  - selestify 8y ago
    I don't know. What makes something meaningful?
- photojosh 8y ago
  Not meaningful to you, meaningful to them. Mine are currently building weird contraptions out of Meccano, take off on their bikes every chance they get, and playing their instruments without being asked (most of the time). They often actively turn down the option to play video games. I take the parenting approach of throwing tons of stuff at them, and let them pursue what they find interesting. It seems to be they find meaning in exploring the limits of what their minds and bodies can do, which I reckon is fine for 8 and 10 year olds.
  - selestify 8y ago
    Do you ever restrict them from doing one thing, such as video games, too much?
    - photojosh 8y ago
      There was a period when they were 5-7 years old where they did want to play a lot more, and we had to limit it and cut them off. One notable experience: we make them watch their own time limits, and there was a time where they went 20 minutes over, so we banned gaming for 2 weeks, and it hasn't happened again. It arises sometimes during school holidays, but more often than not, they themselves decide it's time to finish up and go get some outdoors time. I acknowledge that this dynamic is likely to change significantly when they get a bit older and particularly getting into teenage years, but I don't think we could have done this initial groundwork any better, IMHO. (And another key component is that all screens are in shared family spaces, not in bedrooms.)
- datagram 8y ago
  Making games instead of playing them, for one. That's what got me into computer science when I was a kid.
malchow 8y ago
"Kids have almost zero avenues to build or accomplish things. Their parents don't care or give them meaningful stuff to work on or tools to build stuff with. They might as well be under house arrest." I just want to point up how accurate this comment is. I liked PC gaming quite a bit as a child, both building new games (in QBASIC) and conquering professionally designed games. I would find friends against whom to spar via BBS, Usenet, and the web. Sometime around high school, I found a real-world activity that permitted building. In my case it was a bit odd. I realized that many of my schoolmates were very musically talented, but (at our somewhat dreary public school) had little chance to show off. I built a recording studio and designed reverberation algorithms to make them recordings that sounded as though they were playing in famous cathedrals. Many of them submitted their conservatory applications using these recordings. It was great fun, and taught me the most important rule of business, which is that if you aren't solving someone else's problem, you aren't doing the right thing. Later, I did programming for the Palm OS and built a company out of that. Then I went to college and indulged in the humanities for four years. The observation above, viz., that kids (esp. boys) need ways to feel that they've built something valuable, is exactly right.
korpiq 8y ago
"They have no way of seeing their friends except in-game because they must get their parents to drive them everywhere. Even if they drove to their friends house, they have nothing to do with them except play games." Wait, how common is this in States (I assume)? Here in Finland, kids from 6 or so up go around neighborhood on their own, and have yards&parks to play in. We take them there from the start. Moms/dads circles in parks are a thing, here, with the kids playing around them.
- amanaplanacanal 8y ago
  Very common. The way post-WWII suburban sprawl has been built in the US, there is almost no place that a child can walk to, in a lot of areas.

selestify 8y ago

What kinds of meaningful stuff are kids even capable of doing?

phyzome 8y ago
What kinds of meaningful stuff are adults even capable of doing? What kinds of meaningful stuff are you even capable of doing?
- selestify 8y ago
  I don't know. What makes something meaningful?
photojosh 8y ago
Not meaningful to you, meaningful to them. Mine are currently building weird contraptions out of Meccano, take off on their bikes every chance they get, and playing their instruments without being asked (most of the time). They often actively turn down the option to play video games. I take the parenting approach of throwing tons of stuff at them, and let them pursue what they find interesting. It seems to be they find meaning in exploring the limits of what their minds and bodies can do, which I reckon is fine for 8 and 10 year olds.
- selestify 8y ago
  Do you ever restrict them from doing one thing, such as video games, too much?
  - photojosh 8y ago
    There was a period when they were 5-7 years old where they did want to play a lot more, and we had to limit it and cut them off. One notable experience: we make them watch their own time limits, and there was a time where they went 20 minutes over, so we banned gaming for 2 weeks, and it hasn't happened again. It arises sometimes during school holidays, but more often than not, they themselves decide it's time to finish up and go get some outdoors time. I acknowledge that this dynamic is likely to change significantly when they get a bit older and particularly getting into teenage years, but I don't think we could have done this initial groundwork any better, IMHO. (And another key component is that all screens are in shared family spaces, not in bedrooms.)
datagram 8y ago
Making games instead of playing them, for one. That's what got me into computer science when I was a kid.

malchow 8y ago

"Kids have almost zero avenues to build or accomplish things. Their parents don't care or give them meaningful stuff to work on or tools to build stuff with. They might as well be under house arrest." I just want to point up how accurate this comment is. I liked PC gaming quite a bit as a child, both building new games (in QBASIC) and conquering professionally designed games. I would find friends against whom to spar via BBS, Usenet, and the web. Sometime around high school, I found a real-world activity that permitted building. In my case it was a bit odd. I realized that many of my schoolmates were very musically talented, but (at our somewhat dreary public school) had little chance to show off. I built a recording studio and designed reverberation algorithms to make them recordings that sounded as though they were playing in famous cathedrals. Many of them submitted their conservatory applications using these recordings. It was great fun, and taught me the most important rule of business, which is that if you aren't solving someone else's problem, you aren't doing the right thing. Later, I did programming for the Palm OS and built a company out of that. Then I went to college and indulged in the humanities for four years. The observation above, viz., that kids (esp. boys) need ways to feel that they've built something valuable, is exactly right.

korpiq 8y ago

"They have no way of seeing their friends except in-game because they must get their parents to drive them everywhere. Even if they drove to their friends house, they have nothing to do with them except play games." Wait, how common is this in States (I assume)? Here in Finland, kids from 6 or so up go around neighborhood on their own, and have yards&parks to play in. We take them there from the start. Moms/dads circles in parks are a thing, here, with the kids playing around them.

amanaplanacanal 8y ago
Very common. The way post-WWII suburban sprawl has been built in the US, there is almost no place that a child can walk to, in a lot of areas.