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> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of

> playing video games in the middle of class. Laughs in GameBoy. Seriously, you have to be elder gen x or older to exist in a time where handheld consoles of some flavor were not available. And there’s always been other forms of entertainment, be it passing notes, talking, or daydreaming.

gjadi 3y ago
Legislation doesn't exist in a vacuum. I imagine there are more smartphones in classroom today that the number of GameBoy ever sold.
- falcolas 3y ago
  FWIW, there were more gameboys sold than there are people under 18. 73M children, 118M gameboys.
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    There are more than 73M children in the world.
brigadier132 3y ago
My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.
- eru 3y ago
  > My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Well, how are teachers supposed to enforce a ban on smartphones, then?
  - brigadier132 3y ago
    The school system and public institutions need to protect them and give them back this power.
    - eru 3y ago
      If they get this power, why do we need the global ban, then?
      - dmvdoug 3y ago
        Because it’s an exhausting waste of my time to police cell phones on an individual basis. Of course, a lot of the teachers in my building require students to put their phones in a basket or in a numbered slot when they come into the room so they don’t even have to deal with it. If you have it with you in the room rather than depositing it like you should the teacher will take it and log it into the office, which means mommy or daddy has to come get little Johnny’s phone on Tuesday or Thursday between 7 and 8 am.
- tenebrisalietum 3y ago
  > Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today. Have you never played Tetris? Any Gameboy game where you have to level up (like Final Fantasy) will also be a severe temptation as you have something productive to do while the teacher yammers about stuff you either already know, has nothing to do with you (e.g. talking to another student), or don't care about (like really I do not care about the difference between "predicate nominative" and "subject complement"). Also the original Game Boy was a bit too big to bring into a class and not get caught, but Game Boy Advance SP was perfect.
  - fomine3 3y ago
    Those games were so fun but there were less FOMO. FOMO is a part of a reason for social media addict.
- falcolas 3y ago
  No, my argument is that it doesn't take a smartphone to be distracted in class. And that electronic entertainment devices have been available for many decades. None of this is new. Children being distracted in classrooms is nothing new. If there's children, there's socializing, playing games, and ignoring adults for the much more interesting other children.' Cell phones are just the new boogyman, like CD players and walkmen and gameboys etc. were back in the day.
- dmvdoug 3y ago
  > Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. No, but we can take the electronic device and log it into the office so that a parent has to come retrieve it. And if I happen to forget a couple of days and only manage to log it in on Friday so that they don’t get it over the weekend, well, I’m a forgetful chap. That threat alone, not having a phone over the weekend eliminates 90% of phone issues in my classroom.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Retric 3y ago
I saw plenty of game boys confiscated. Cellphones are in a strange place because they have actual utility, while also letting people play games.
- bamfly 3y ago
  Teachers want to treat cell phones like gameboys, but parents won't let them. They throw an absolute fit. Hell, parents call their kids in class just to chat.
xwdv 3y ago
Are you serious… as a kid pulling out a Gameboy in the middle of class and just sitting there playing a game would feel like a death sentence. The equivalent of walking into a bank with an assault rifle firing wildly in the air.
- falcolas 3y ago
  And yet children playing games on their phones and aren't the equivalent of your wildly inappropriate metaphor?
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    Because phones are treated way differently than gameboys were
  - kjkjadksj 3y ago
    Its a lot easier to use a phone one handed discretely than a gameboy
Izkata 3y ago
My thing was doodling in the notebook. In addition to abstract designs I came up with several characters, drew single-pane comics of them interacting with each other, and so on. Gameboy was risky in class (never saw anyone do that), but several of us did bring our NDS to assemblies and used the wireless chat feature.
nordsieck 3y ago
> Laughs in GameBoy. Gameboys just weren't very common. I grew up in a pretty well off area, and I only knew a couple of people with them. Whereas, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 90% of teens have smart phones.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- chongli 3y ago
  Nintendo sold 118 million Game Boys. Sure, not even close to the smart phone market, but not exactly rare birds.
unethical_ban 3y ago
Guess which class I did worst in my senior year mid 2000s? The one where I played NES emulator on the lab computer and blockdude on the ti83. There is something to be said for focus.
GuardianCaveman 3y ago
No one in my schools brought anything like that because they get confiscated forever. It was a big deal and also came with additional punishment. I am firmly a millennial. Passing notes was rare too and if caught they would go to principals office. Now kids whip phones out and play and assault teachers who take their phone or record teachers and mock them and other students. It’s horrible.
- noobermin 3y ago
  Soon you'll be shaking your fists at kids near your lawn and opposing affordable housing in your neighborhood
  - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
    > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." > Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. C'mon man. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

gjadi 3y ago

Legislation doesn't exist in a vacuum. I imagine there are more smartphones in classroom today that the number of GameBoy ever sold.

falcolas 3y ago
FWIW, there were more gameboys sold than there are people under 18. 73M children, 118M gameboys.
- edgyquant 3y ago
  There are more than 73M children in the world.

brigadier132 3y ago

My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Also, if your argument is "gameboy existed". People just did not use it as much. Today smartphone usage in class is rampant. Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today.

eru 3y ago
> My teacher would have ripped the gameboy out of my hand and confiscated it for the rest of the school year. Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. Well, how are teachers supposed to enforce a ban on smartphones, then?
- brigadier132 3y ago
  The school system and public institutions need to protect them and give them back this power.
  - eru 3y ago
    If they get this power, why do we need the global ban, then?
    - dmvdoug 3y ago
      Because it’s an exhausting waste of my time to police cell phones on an individual basis. Of course, a lot of the teachers in my building require students to put their phones in a basket or in a numbered slot when they come into the room so they don’t even have to deal with it. If you have it with you in the room rather than depositing it like you should the teacher will take it and log it into the office, which means mommy or daddy has to come get little Johnny’s phone on Tuesday or Thursday between 7 and 8 am.
tenebrisalietum 3y ago
> Also gameboy games were not anywhere near as addicting as games and social media are today. Have you never played Tetris? Any Gameboy game where you have to level up (like Final Fantasy) will also be a severe temptation as you have something productive to do while the teacher yammers about stuff you either already know, has nothing to do with you (e.g. talking to another student), or don't care about (like really I do not care about the difference between "predicate nominative" and "subject complement"). Also the original Game Boy was a bit too big to bring into a class and not get caught, but Game Boy Advance SP was perfect.
- fomine3 3y ago
  Those games were so fun but there were less FOMO. FOMO is a part of a reason for social media addict.
falcolas 3y ago
No, my argument is that it doesn't take a smartphone to be distracted in class. And that electronic entertainment devices have been available for many decades. None of this is new. Children being distracted in classrooms is nothing new. If there's children, there's socializing, playing games, and ignoring adults for the much more interesting other children.' Cell phones are just the new boogyman, like CD players and walkmen and gameboys etc. were back in the day.
dmvdoug 3y ago
> Teachers do not that have that kind of freedom today. No, but we can take the electronic device and log it into the office so that a parent has to come retrieve it. And if I happen to forget a couple of days and only manage to log it in on Friday so that they don’t get it over the weekend, well, I’m a forgetful chap. That threat alone, not having a phone over the weekend eliminates 90% of phone issues in my classroom.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Retric 3y ago

I saw plenty of game boys confiscated. Cellphones are in a strange place because they have actual utility, while also letting people play games.

bamfly 3y ago
Teachers want to treat cell phones like gameboys, but parents won't let them. They throw an absolute fit. Hell, parents call their kids in class just to chat.

xwdv 3y ago

Are you serious… as a kid pulling out a Gameboy in the middle of class and just sitting there playing a game would feel like a death sentence. The equivalent of walking into a bank with an assault rifle firing wildly in the air.

falcolas 3y ago
And yet children playing games on their phones and aren't the equivalent of your wildly inappropriate metaphor?
- edgyquant 3y ago
  Because phones are treated way differently than gameboys were
- kjkjadksj 3y ago
  Its a lot easier to use a phone one handed discretely than a gameboy

Izkata 3y ago

My thing was doodling in the notebook. In addition to abstract designs I came up with several characters, drew single-pane comics of them interacting with each other, and so on. Gameboy was risky in class (never saw anyone do that), but several of us did bring our NDS to assemblies and used the wireless chat feature.

nordsieck 3y ago

> Laughs in GameBoy. Gameboys just weren't very common. I grew up in a pretty well off area, and I only knew a couple of people with them. Whereas, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 90% of teens have smart phones.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
chongli 3y ago
Nintendo sold 118 million Game Boys. Sure, not even close to the smart phone market, but not exactly rare birds.

unethical_ban 3y ago

Guess which class I did worst in my senior year mid 2000s? The one where I played NES emulator on the lab computer and blockdude on the ti83. There is something to be said for focus.

GuardianCaveman 3y ago

No one in my schools brought anything like that because they get confiscated forever. It was a big deal and also came with additional punishment. I am firmly a millennial. Passing notes was rare too and if caught they would go to principals office. Now kids whip phones out and play and assault teachers who take their phone or record teachers and mock them and other students. It’s horrible.

noobermin 3y ago
Soon you'll be shaking your fists at kids near your lawn and opposing affordable housing in your neighborhood
- DiggyJohnson 3y ago
  > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." > Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. C'mon man. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html