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It's easy now in retrospect to say "those hours glued in front of the PC turned out good" and jump to "but that's not the case for todays kids" with a rose tint

It's easy now in retrospect to say "those hours glued in front of the PC turned out good" and jump to "but that's not the case for todays kids" with a rose tinted glass. It reminds me of something a friend told me about a youtuber called mister beast(or something); how in an interview he said he was practically raised with youtube as his sole life, spend all waking hours thinking "what would buzz on YouTube?" and not just him, he would talk about this with his fellow content creator, like they were obsessed. Afaik the guy is doing really well. Now replace "YouTube" with whatever programming language you mentioned and you can see a similar story. And the other side of your coin "glued in front of PC" is people like me who spent 16h a day of my Highschool year playing online games that lead to absolutely nothing except maybe a little bit better English knowledge. When you're looking at kids glued to the phone, you're looking at how the generation above me/us looked at me,and not you. And I think I'm in the majority of people that was glued in front of the PC; Nothing "productive" really came out of it

GekkePrutser 4y ago
As well as that, YouTube is more accessible for most people. Programming will never be for everyone. It requires a certain mindset. Personally for me making YouTube videos is very hard, much harder than programming. I hate making them and I hate watching them just as much. But I'm an outlier and I realize that.
formerkrogemp 4y ago
> It reminds me of something a friend told me about a youtuber called mister beast(or something); how in an interview he said he was practically raised with youtube as his sole life, spend all waking hours thinking "what would buzz on YouTube?" and not just him, he would talk about this with his fellow content creator, like they were obsessed.. Afaik the guy is doing really well. I understand what you're trying to say about this generational view of youngsters being into the latest fad tech not being viewed as productive by the older people in their lives. I think mr. beast is an awful example. You picked one of the most successful and well known youtubers. For every one of him, there are millions of unsuccessful individuals with youtube channels or other social media "jobs." Survivorship bias is real here. The income distribution is extremely top heavy and unfair. > When you're looking at kids glued to the phone, you're looking at how the generation above me/us looked at me,and not you. And I think I'm in the majority of people that was glued in front of the PC; Nothing "productive" really came out of it. You're right that for the most part nothing productive comes from consuming entertainment as such for the vast majority of consumers of social media, especially when young. I'm still unsure of where I stand on this issue, but I'm certainly more cognizant of the costs of social media and so forth than the benefits.
skeeter2020 4y ago
>> Afaik the guy is doing really well. He has like 100M subscribers and 16.5 billion views and counting. So yep, doing "OK". It's very, VERY dangerous to look at the peak of a mountain and try to extrapolate ANYTHING from a single data point. Comparing the history & outcome of someone like this with your personal experience isn't likely to be very valuable, but nothing you've presented discredits that neither of these approaches are likely to lead to enjoyable, fulfilling lives.
indymike 4y ago
> It's easy now in retrospect to say "those hours glued in front of the PC turned out good" and jump to "but that's not the case for todays kids" with a rose tinted glass. That isn't really the point... but it is easy to read that out of my comment. The point is the devices don't offer the possibilities that a PC did. The only thing you can really create efficiently on a phone are short messages, photos and videos. > And the other side of your coin "glued in front of PC" is people like me who spent 16h a day of my Highschool year playing online games that lead to absolutely nothing except maybe a little bit better English knowledge. I probably did that more than a little bit as well ;-) and I do not reget a minute of it.
shrimp_emoji 4y ago
>spending time at a PC can lead to a career in software engineering >spending time on YouTube can lead to being an e-celebrity Two differences are that of those is a casino, and it's probably not the healthiest or most sustainable path for most people. >When you're looking at kids glued to the phone, you're looking at how the generation above me/us looked at me,and not you. And I think I'm in the majority of people that was glued in front of the PC; Nothing "productive" really came out of it The argument here is that the PC offers an onramp for some percentage of people to something really good, while the phone intrinsically doesn't. Or, if it does, it's an onramp to being an influencer. Nuff said. :p

GekkePrutser 4y ago

As well as that, YouTube is more accessible for most people. Programming will never be for everyone. It requires a certain mindset. Personally for me making YouTube videos is very hard, much harder than programming. I hate making them and I hate watching them just as much. But I'm an outlier and I realize that.

formerkrogemp 4y ago

> It reminds me of something a friend told me about a youtuber called mister beast(or something); how in an interview he said he was practically raised with youtube as his sole life, spend all waking hours thinking "what would buzz on YouTube?" and not just him, he would talk about this with his fellow content creator, like they were obsessed.. Afaik the guy is doing really well. I understand what you're trying to say about this generational view of youngsters being into the latest fad tech not being viewed as productive by the older people in their lives. I think mr. beast is an awful example. You picked one of the most successful and well known youtubers. For every one of him, there are millions of unsuccessful individuals with youtube channels or other social media "jobs." Survivorship bias is real here. The income distribution is extremely top heavy and unfair. > When you're looking at kids glued to the phone, you're looking at how the generation above me/us looked at me,and not you. And I think I'm in the majority of people that was glued in front of the PC; Nothing "productive" really came out of it. You're right that for the most part nothing productive comes from consuming entertainment as such for the vast majority of consumers of social media, especially when young. I'm still unsure of where I stand on this issue, but I'm certainly more cognizant of the costs of social media and so forth than the benefits.

skeeter2020 4y ago

>> Afaik the guy is doing really well. He has like 100M subscribers and 16.5 billion views and counting. So yep, doing "OK". It's very, VERY dangerous to look at the peak of a mountain and try to extrapolate ANYTHING from a single data point. Comparing the history & outcome of someone like this with your personal experience isn't likely to be very valuable, but nothing you've presented discredits that neither of these approaches are likely to lead to enjoyable, fulfilling lives.

indymike 4y ago

> It's easy now in retrospect to say "those hours glued in front of the PC turned out good" and jump to "but that's not the case for todays kids" with a rose tinted glass. That isn't really the point... but it is easy to read that out of my comment. The point is the devices don't offer the possibilities that a PC did. The only thing you can really create efficiently on a phone are short messages, photos and videos. > And the other side of your coin "glued in front of PC" is people like me who spent 16h a day of my Highschool year playing online games that lead to absolutely nothing except maybe a little bit better English knowledge. I probably did that more than a little bit as well ;-) and I do not reget a minute of it.

shrimp_emoji 4y ago

>spending time at a PC can lead to a career in software engineering >spending time on YouTube can lead to being an e-celebrity Two differences are that of those is a casino, and it's probably not the healthiest or most sustainable path for most people. >When you're looking at kids glued to the phone, you're looking at how the generation above me/us looked at me,and not you. And I think I'm in the majority of people that was glued in front of the PC; Nothing "productive" really came out of it The argument here is that the PC offers an onramp for some percentage of people to something really good, while the phone intrinsically doesn't. Or, if it does, it's an onramp to being an influencer. Nuff said. :p