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> These days, every one of Kongregate's users has a smartphone with free games more accessible and convenient than the old browser gaming model. No they don't.

by ars 6y ago

> These days, every one of Kongregate's users has a smartphone with free games more accessible and convenient than the old browser gaming model. No they don't. There are tons of young children who play these games and don't have phones. Is that where we are heading now? That even 6 year olds get phones?

dgacmu 6y ago
They get tablets.
jasonlingx 6y ago
> Is that where we are heading now? That even 6 year olds get phones? Isn’t a phone just another computer? I mean, how is it worse?
- Simon_says 6y ago
  I don't know what phone you have, but I wouldn't know where to begin to learn programming on my phone. But I started learning programming at 6 years old on a desktop computer.
  - mtrower 6y ago
    As did I - on an 8088 that I still have around! But you know, I was drawn to things like that. I read every page of the several hundred thick binder that came with it, and tinkered with everything it described - even the things that weren't really much use. I lamented the lack of a hard drive, so I could try out the drive initialization and head parking commands (why? Who knows! They were there!). MS-Debug was a gold mine where I could play around with this arcane Assembly language. I couldn't build anything significant, and I tended to crash my system a lot, but it sure was fun! I tinkered with everything, really --- mostly electronics, but some mechanical devices as well. But you know, how many kids are like that? Given that and a tablet... most kids would just take the tablet. I think the ones who are like that, will find their way to it anyway, given half a chance (so exposure is still important). Maybe there's some sort of middle ground - mobile games/apps that employ the same basic concepts as programming, to act as a gateway? Or maybe in a decade we'll just have holographic haptic keyboards that are trivially portable...
silveroriole 6y ago
Heading? We’re already there, sorry to break it to you. Last time I went to the zoo, there were practically toddlers taking photos with better phones than I’d ever owned.
tifadg1 6y ago
Ofcourse - that was always the promise of the tech revolution - to become connected from day 1 - and we're getting there. 40 years ago only well-to-do people were connected, 20 years ago it trickled down to teens, nowadays we've reached toddlers.

by ars 6y ago

dgacmu 6y ago

They get tablets.

jasonlingx 6y ago

> Is that where we are heading now? That even 6 year olds get phones? Isn’t a phone just another computer? I mean, how is it worse?

Simon_says 6y ago
I don't know what phone you have, but I wouldn't know where to begin to learn programming on my phone. But I started learning programming at 6 years old on a desktop computer.
- mtrower 6y ago
  As did I - on an 8088 that I still have around! But you know, I was drawn to things like that. I read every page of the several hundred thick binder that came with it, and tinkered with everything it described - even the things that weren't really much use. I lamented the lack of a hard drive, so I could try out the drive initialization and head parking commands (why? Who knows! They were there!). MS-Debug was a gold mine where I could play around with this arcane Assembly language. I couldn't build anything significant, and I tended to crash my system a lot, but it sure was fun! I tinkered with everything, really --- mostly electronics, but some mechanical devices as well. But you know, how many kids are like that? Given that and a tablet... most kids would just take the tablet. I think the ones who are like that, will find their way to it anyway, given half a chance (so exposure is still important). Maybe there's some sort of middle ground - mobile games/apps that employ the same basic concepts as programming, to act as a gateway? Or maybe in a decade we'll just have holographic haptic keyboards that are trivially portable...

silveroriole 6y ago

Heading? We’re already there, sorry to break it to you. Last time I went to the zoo, there were practically toddlers taking photos with better phones than I’d ever owned.

tifadg1 6y ago

Ofcourse - that was always the promise of the tech revolution - to become connected from day 1 - and we're getting there. 40 years ago only well-to-do people were connected, 20 years ago it trickled down to teens, nowadays we've reached toddlers.