4 ms·

This is the way. I've thought long and hard about how to kind of insulate my kids from GUIs as they grow up. I'd love for them to view computers mostly as tool

This is the way. I've thought long and hard about how to kind of insulate my kids from GUIs as they grow up. I'd love for them to view computers mostly as tools for organizing information and learning. I don't want them to see it as a means for entertainment—that will come for sure, but I'd like to delay that as long as possible. Better to let kids learn to play in the dirt outside than get stuck inside, IMO.

emodendroket 5y ago
I feel like this is one of those things where they'll either gravitate towards it or not. Most of my early introductions to computing devices were just playing video games which wasn't exactly educational.
- verve_rat 5y ago
  I'm sure if we start talking about it, there will be a bunch of people of a certain age that will wax lyrical about putting mouse drivers in the high memory area, testing changes to autoexec.bat to see what works, using EMM386, and a bunch of other stuff I have forgotten. Just getting to the stage of playing games used to be a lot more educational than it is now, and I think there is something to that. If I had kids I would definitely try to recreate that experience for them somehow.
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    I didn't have to do any of that, I put the cartridge in the slot or clicked the icon on the desktop. Or I did but it came later when I was already really into games and wanted to putz with emulators or whatever.
    - eurasiantiger 5y ago
      Figuring out to how to load mouse, sound card and CD-ROM drivers while still having at least 605kB free base memory for launching SimCity was definitely a generational experience.
guessbest 5y ago
I've thought about this with my daughter since she will wonder what I am doing on my computer. I have to make the screen 'professional' looking so much so that it won't appeal to a child as a game, but more of a functional tool. I mainly use macos so I am constrained, but I was thinking of a TUI like screen or tmux. I've only a few more months until she is aware enough to start wondering.
- elliotec 5y ago
  This is really strange to me. Why does it have to look "professional" to avoid curiosity from the child, and what does a professional look entail vs video games if you're not literally playing video games? And what is the harm of it appealing to the child?
  - p_l 5y ago
    I think it was more that to make it appealing it would need to resemble what the parent was doing. I definitely do have a strong nostalgia for AutoCAD and related computer wizardry because of observing my father, and while I might have started with computer games, a non-trivial portion of my interest was that the game I played was a flight sim - and my father worked in aviation so I have photos as a toddler in pilot's seat :)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
dzhiurgis 5y ago
Only if kids are into it. Forcing structure under 7yo's isn't really great for their creativity. And given how little screen time they can have at these ages I wonder how much retention they can have.
Lutger 5y ago
As a 5 year old, I remember getting into the BIOS and changing each and every setting to see what effect it had. For sure, I caused my parents a good deal of headache breaking the computer :) I also played video games a lot, but basically didn't feel there was a distinction between tools or entertainment. It was all fun to me. And I played in the dirt at least as much as I played video games, though we did have a huge garden. I'm not sure, but maybe the games created these days are way more addicting that the old DOS games I played as a kid. I loved them, but not as much as going outside. I tried some gw-basic and acquired very basic skills in DOS, but not speaking English and having no books or a teacher, I reached a plateau somehow and lost interest. It took 20 years or so and then I got interested in programming again. I think there's a natural curiosity in learning things as a kid (and still as an adult, just less so). But then, at some point, we need to overcome some obstacles and often need guidance, help and encouragement. At least that's how I experienced it. In my experience learning things there is always a point where it is not fun' anymore and I need something 'external' to get me through, though nowadays I can make that push myself. The rewards after that point are very much worth it.

emodendroket 5y ago

I feel like this is one of those things where they'll either gravitate towards it or not. Most of my early introductions to computing devices were just playing video games which wasn't exactly educational.

verve_rat 5y ago
I'm sure if we start talking about it, there will be a bunch of people of a certain age that will wax lyrical about putting mouse drivers in the high memory area, testing changes to autoexec.bat to see what works, using EMM386, and a bunch of other stuff I have forgotten. Just getting to the stage of playing games used to be a lot more educational than it is now, and I think there is something to that. If I had kids I would definitely try to recreate that experience for them somehow.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  I didn't have to do any of that, I put the cartridge in the slot or clicked the icon on the desktop. Or I did but it came later when I was already really into games and wanted to putz with emulators or whatever.
  - eurasiantiger 5y ago
    Figuring out to how to load mouse, sound card and CD-ROM drivers while still having at least 605kB free base memory for launching SimCity was definitely a generational experience.

guessbest 5y ago

I've thought about this with my daughter since she will wonder what I am doing on my computer. I have to make the screen 'professional' looking so much so that it won't appeal to a child as a game, but more of a functional tool. I mainly use macos so I am constrained, but I was thinking of a TUI like screen or tmux. I've only a few more months until she is aware enough to start wondering.

elliotec 5y ago
This is really strange to me. Why does it have to look "professional" to avoid curiosity from the child, and what does a professional look entail vs video games if you're not literally playing video games? And what is the harm of it appealing to the child?
- p_l 5y ago
  I think it was more that to make it appealing it would need to resemble what the parent was doing. I definitely do have a strong nostalgia for AutoCAD and related computer wizardry because of observing my father, and while I might have started with computer games, a non-trivial portion of my interest was that the game I played was a flight sim - and my father worked in aviation so I have photos as a toddler in pilot's seat :)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

dzhiurgis 5y ago

Only if kids are into it. Forcing structure under 7yo's isn't really great for their creativity. And given how little screen time they can have at these ages I wonder how much retention they can have.

Lutger 5y ago

As a 5 year old, I remember getting into the BIOS and changing each and every setting to see what effect it had. For sure, I caused my parents a good deal of headache breaking the computer :) I also played video games a lot, but basically didn't feel there was a distinction between tools or entertainment. It was all fun to me. And I played in the dirt at least as much as I played video games, though we did have a huge garden. I'm not sure, but maybe the games created these days are way more addicting that the old DOS games I played as a kid. I loved them, but not as much as going outside. I tried some gw-basic and acquired very basic skills in DOS, but not speaking English and having no books or a teacher, I reached a plateau somehow and lost interest. It took 20 years or so and then I got interested in programming again. I think there's a natural curiosity in learning things as a kid (and still as an adult, just less so). But then, at some point, we need to overcome some obstacles and often need guidance, help and encouragement. At least that's how I experienced it. In my experience learning things there is always a point where it is not fun' anymore and I need something 'external' to get me through, though nowadays I can make that push myself. The rewards after that point are very much worth it.