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My dad smashed my computer around the laundry (where the computer lived) with my cricket bat because I was "playing games" instead of studying. "playing games"

• ed25519FUUU 6y ago
  You are a lucky one, because at that time to your interests in computing would lead to job opportunities. I’m afraid it is not so with an iPhone. Our phones take without giving. Now excuse me I should probably log off and do something useful.
  • kemayo 6y ago
    My daughter has learned a lot about video editing, having fallen into the "Gatcha Life" community. It's a legitimate life skill.
    • Yetanfou 6y ago
      > It's a legitimate life skill. ...this month, maybe this year, until the next fad hits the 'net and all those influency types need to adapt or exit.
      • boomfus 6y ago
        Video editing has nothing to do with being an influencer lol. That is a very transferrable skill to a lot of industries.
        • Turing_Machine 6y ago
          It's worth learning anyway, even just to help one's family videos not be so damned boring and amateurish. Not everything has to be directly related to employment. It's nice to know how to cook a meal, even if you have absolutely no ambition to work in a restaurant.
        • ed25519FUUU 6y ago
          Video editing is a useful skill in exactly one industry...
          • AnimalMuppet 6y ago
            Television news? Hollywood movies? Video games? Corporate presentations? Online schooling? Which is your "exactly one industry"?
          • imtringued 6y ago
            So is software development, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Or basically every profession ever.
  • buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
    > my dad couldn't realise that there was a rising future in gaming as an industry or the internet, because it was so far removed from his traditional roots Why are you so convinced this sentence isn't going to describe you in 20 years?
  • pwinnski 6y ago
    The head of technical support at the company for which I work recently quit her job to support her husband's streaming career. He makes in three months more than I do in a year. This idea that things like iPhones, or video games, or any other piece of technology cannot possibly be productive or profitable in the future, it's got to die. When I was young, my passion for computers meant I wouldn't become the lawyer people suggested I should be, but now I make more than most of my lawyer friends. Things change, and "using an iPhone" may end up being the key to future happiness, career opportunities, or who knows what?
    • floren 6y ago
      > The head of technical support at the company for which I work recently quit her job to support her husband's streaming career. He makes in three months more than I do in a year. For every one of those, there are hundreds of streamers who quit their jobs to focus on streaming but ended up broke, and thousands of streamers who spend every free moment outside of their day job trying to build a following but never get there. The old dream of rock stardom, well, you get a guitar and figure out that it's actually hard and maybe you shelve that. Streaming... anybody can play Minecraft, so you can keep the dream alive a lot longer.
      • pwinnski 6y ago
        Sure, but I'm not saying "everybody should try streaming for a living." I'm saying it's not true that kids using iPhones is always a dead-end timesuck.
        • RonanTheGrey 6y ago
          You're taking one example and generalizing it. I'm sure someone did something productive with cocaine once too, but that's not generally its outcome. (just a random example that occurs to me, I do not agree with the "War on some drugs" btw it was just an example)
          • pwinnski 6y ago
• bcfgh123 6y ago
  Isn't a boy coding assembly a bit different than a girl doing TikTok, OnlyFans etc.?
  • cambalache 6y ago
    Yes, a girl doing OnlyFans is making money.
    • bigbubba 6y ago
      Turning that into a career seems like a moonshot, making it comparable to other "achieve celebrity" plans young adults may have (become a movie star, become a famous youtuber, become a famous rockstar, etc) I think in general these aspirations shouldn't be shat on, but young adults with these aspirations should probably be gently guided in more realistic directions.
      • cambalache 6y ago
        You dont have too, the time investment is minimal,many girls were already taking erotic pics anyway. If you are attractive you can ride that wave for several years and keep living your life normally. I've noticed that many of these girls are college students and the money from their admirers is useful to buy clothes, gadgets and to take their boyfriends to fancy vacations. So as long as you are aware this is a bubble you will be doing fine.
        • bigbubba 6y ago
          I don't know what you mean by 'you don't have to.' The claim above is that there is a difference between learning how to program and having an onlyfans account. Your response was to say the difference is that the latter makes money. My response to that is the former is more likely to turn it into a career. I don't see where compulsions come into it.
          • cambalache 6y ago
• jbob2000 6y ago
  Are you happy? I missed so many experiences sitting in front of the computer all day, it didn’t really get me any further than if I had taken a more modest interest. YouTube and Minecraft and these digital realities are fake realities. Whatever happiness they provide is temporary and short lived. It took me until my 30s to realize this and now I’m starting all over again. Digital stuff is fine in moderation, but I will not let my children build a life around it like my parents allowed me to.
  • jasonv 6y ago
    I have an almost 17 year old who doesn't want a smartphone. He plays Minecraft/KSP about 90 minutes each night. But he'd always, always accept an offer to do something else with me or someone else in the family. So I make sure, as his father, to make that offer sometimes. And I also feel fine if I'm feeling like a book or a movie or something else. Not all kids become [insert teenager cliches] upon the onset of teenage-dom, for all the different reasons this can be true... but when I was his age, I definitely defaulted to getting on the computer instead of doing other things. I do think it's interesting how little discussion there is in culling digital behaviors moreso during pandemic times. I personally don't have a lot of interest in any of the new iPhones because my iPhone mostly lives on my desk at home. It hardly ever gets out.
    • RonanTheGrey 6y ago
      How the hell did you manage this. Honestly what's your secret. I need to make sure my kids turn out this way. I want tech to augment their lives, not replace them (or destroy them).
      • smabie 6y ago
        Why do you think he somehow "managed" this? How your children act and what they want to do is, in many ways, beyond your control. Do you think of yourself like that? Like "I acted like X because my parents raised me like Y?" I certainly don't.
    • damnencryption 6y ago
• whywhywhywhy 6y ago
  >"playing games" was using assembly language and pascal with s3m libraries to program a game. None of which is possible on iPhones and iPads these kids are growing up with. Even if they did escape the attention algorithm long enough to get bored and explore there is nothing to discover it's a locked black box.
  • sergiomattei 6y ago
    Blanket statements are easy but reality is much more complex. iSH, code learning apps, Codecademy via the iPad browser, iBooks, Library Genesis for getting any book in existence for free, Duolingo, cloud coding. I could go on... There's many, many ways of learning through these devices.
    • whywhywhywhy 6y ago
      Is anything you listed even remotely on the same level as "assembly language and pascal with s3m libraries to program a game", what does Duolingo have to do with being able to understand and prod the workings of the machine in your hand. Still a locked down black box designed around attention algorithms and I'm getting tired of pretending it's not.
      • bradlys 6y ago
        Why is programming or understanding how the device works considered more important than learning another language to speak to other people?
        • sjy 6y ago
          Many HN readers earn a living from programming skills they developed by exploring computers aimlessly as kids in the 1990s and 2000s. I’m a Duolingo addict who has used the app daily for more than three years, so I do think it’s a fun way to build basic language skills. But no matter how much time I spend in the app, I won’t learn how it works or get the ability to change, modify or develop it. The learning experience is stage-managed by a company and funded by ads displayed between the lessons. It is very different to my experience of learning to write HTML and PHP when I was in high school.
• rkangel 6y ago
  I think there's a big gulf between Minecraft, Roblox, Facetime and even Youtube when compared to TikTok/Snapchat/Facebook. Not all screen time is created equal, and there are any number of ways for a child to be creative and learn and socialise in the digital world as suppose to the physical one. The social networks are a bit different. What value is a child getting from them that they wouldn't get from a WhatsApp group? As other commenters have pointed out, these big platforms are engineered to the last detail to 'increase engagement'. To put it another way - they are purposefully addictive and I don't see the value that might make that worthwhile.
• Turing_Machine 6y ago
  Sorry to hear this, my friend. There are some real princes out there. My stepfather refused to let me take piano lessons, because those would turn you into a "sissy" (e.g., Liberace). Yeah, I'm still angry about it.
  • chordalkeyboard 6y ago
    Its probably not too late to take piano lessons. You’re not alone.
  • Brendinooo 6y ago
    I started my kids on an app called Simply Piano, and am trying it out myself. I loved music my whole life but never wanted to take piano lessons; now I do, so I'm trying it out. Give it a shot!
• objectivistbrit 6y ago
  Have you read the book "Running on Empty" by Jonice Webb? It describes a pattern she identifies as "childhood emotional neglect" (a possibly misleading label). The pattern she describes usually includes a combination of lack of attention, lack of an emotional connection between parent and child, and lack of appropriate responses to problems the child faces. Your comment made me think of that book, and I certainly found it very useful in overcoming some of the lingering consequences of my odd upbringing. My mother was not abusive, but was alternately neglectful and controlling, and I only recently found out that she was continuing patterns from her own childhood. I highly recommend the book if your situation is at all similar.