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IMHO, the key thing that we need to do is to teach our kids how to create "things" instead of just "consuming". This is important no matter which era you are in

IMHO, the key thing that we need to do is to teach our kids how to create "things" instead of just "consuming". This is important no matter which era you are in, but the average 15th century kid didn't have that many stuffs laying around for him to just consume. This problem is suddenly in our face now and we are scrambling around to try and keep our children away from the cacophony of information, but the better thing to do is to teach kids to see computers or phones as tools, and they are there for them to wield and command. What you should actually do varies based on your kids' preferences, your experiences. You can teach them to code, to do graphic design, write stuffs. Hell, if my child feel inclined I will allow them to learn to create TikTok video, but they have to actually *create* a piece of original content, instead of regurgitating other people's ideas.

HPsquared 3y ago
It's the Internet's big class distinction: the "creators" (0.1% with decent audience, 1% with any audience, 10% commenters) and pure lurkers/consumers (the rest).
amelius 3y ago
> IMHO, the key thing that we need to do is to teach our kids how to create "things" instead of just "consuming". This is important no matter which era you are in You say it as if kids prefer reading books over building with LEGOs :)
- antran22 3y ago
  I mean, that's a very specific example of looking at it. But let me try and rationalize it: - Books are not purely consumption. Rather, working through a good book is a very good creative exercise, because you are "creating" critical thinking for yourself. You still have to filter the intake of book for your kids, but imo there are very few books that have no value at all, because producing a book is costly to just put out junks on a massive scale. - On the contrary, we have to agree that nowadays there are things that give your kids unbounded consumption. Very little critical thinking can be had after 2 hours of viewing mindless Youtube video. If you restrict your kids to only good content that provoke thinking, it's alright, but there is just too much crap on Youtube that lulls them to be mindless. So, our kids are "consuming" at record high rate and "producing" at record low rate.
flskafdslaf 3y ago
Tablets and smartphones are designed at every level to be devices for consuming (or being consumed by?) content. And if you do want to create things, they are terrible tools for that.
- ndr_ 3y ago
  LumaFusion/LumaTouch is one counter-example, and I‘m certain there are others. At the surface, you may describe it as a „video editor“, but I totally agree that it‘s really about „Story Telling“. I use it on iPad, and I am mesmerised about how ideas click into place every time - there must be serious, long earned expertise at work at the makers of this app. „Designed for consuming“? LumaFusion is the most fun (for me as the creator and my tiny audience of family & friends) creator‘s tool on any device - be it programming on/for small or big iron, writing on Windows, photo editing… you name it. Your statement may be true for anything knock-off or underpowered, though. Your sentiment just not generalises to premium.
  - flskafdslaf 3y ago
    That's fantastic, if your jam is investing in premium hardware and story-telling in video format. Personally, I can't think of a bigger waste of everyone's time than videoing my own life. Edit: I will take your point though, that Apple at least attempts to produce premium products with a purpose. However, judging by the number of iPads and iPhones I see being used as passive content consumption interfaces, I'm not sure the outcome is much different.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    iMovie has existed on it since the start, for all the professional accolades it earns the iPad. You're still not going to see Steve Jobs pitching it as a replacement for the Mac, though. The iPad's most holistic pitch was ebook consumption, everything else was Angry Birds, YouTube and the faint promise of Pornhub on a bigger screen. I did my last leg of high school on an school-mandated iPad, and it's not hard to get what everyone here is talking about. Want to do CAD? Gotta get a different machine. Want to record music? iPads don't have the drivers for our DAC. Want to type an essay? Go rent a detachable keyboard from the library. So on and so forth until you never feel motivated to create anything superfluous again. It was an exceptionally poor replacement for a laptop, particularly when I wanted to make something or do creative work.
hluska 3y ago
Great advice! My seven year old went from doing animations with Scratch to drawing flip books. Now when she consumes media m, it’s usually about getting better at animation. Needless to say, everyone who knows me in person sees clips of all her animations. And for some reason, it seems like they avoid me…:)
- number6 3y ago
  Are there clips online? There could be an even broader audience

HPsquared 3y ago

It's the Internet's big class distinction: the "creators" (0.1% with decent audience, 1% with any audience, 10% commenters) and pure lurkers/consumers (the rest).

amelius 3y ago

> IMHO, the key thing that we need to do is to teach our kids how to create "things" instead of just "consuming". This is important no matter which era you are in You say it as if kids prefer reading books over building with LEGOs :)

antran22 3y ago
I mean, that's a very specific example of looking at it. But let me try and rationalize it: - Books are not purely consumption. Rather, working through a good book is a very good creative exercise, because you are "creating" critical thinking for yourself. You still have to filter the intake of book for your kids, but imo there are very few books that have no value at all, because producing a book is costly to just put out junks on a massive scale. - On the contrary, we have to agree that nowadays there are things that give your kids unbounded consumption. Very little critical thinking can be had after 2 hours of viewing mindless Youtube video. If you restrict your kids to only good content that provoke thinking, it's alright, but there is just too much crap on Youtube that lulls them to be mindless. So, our kids are "consuming" at record high rate and "producing" at record low rate.

flskafdslaf 3y ago

Tablets and smartphones are designed at every level to be devices for consuming (or being consumed by?) content. And if you do want to create things, they are terrible tools for that.

ndr_ 3y ago
LumaFusion/LumaTouch is one counter-example, and I‘m certain there are others. At the surface, you may describe it as a „video editor“, but I totally agree that it‘s really about „Story Telling“. I use it on iPad, and I am mesmerised about how ideas click into place every time - there must be serious, long earned expertise at work at the makers of this app. „Designed for consuming“? LumaFusion is the most fun (for me as the creator and my tiny audience of family & friends) creator‘s tool on any device - be it programming on/for small or big iron, writing on Windows, photo editing… you name it. Your statement may be true for anything knock-off or underpowered, though. Your sentiment just not generalises to premium.
- flskafdslaf 3y ago
  That's fantastic, if your jam is investing in premium hardware and story-telling in video format. Personally, I can't think of a bigger waste of everyone's time than videoing my own life. Edit: I will take your point though, that Apple at least attempts to produce premium products with a purpose. However, judging by the number of iPads and iPhones I see being used as passive content consumption interfaces, I'm not sure the outcome is much different.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  iMovie has existed on it since the start, for all the professional accolades it earns the iPad. You're still not going to see Steve Jobs pitching it as a replacement for the Mac, though. The iPad's most holistic pitch was ebook consumption, everything else was Angry Birds, YouTube and the faint promise of Pornhub on a bigger screen. I did my last leg of high school on an school-mandated iPad, and it's not hard to get what everyone here is talking about. Want to do CAD? Gotta get a different machine. Want to record music? iPads don't have the drivers for our DAC. Want to type an essay? Go rent a detachable keyboard from the library. So on and so forth until you never feel motivated to create anything superfluous again. It was an exceptionally poor replacement for a laptop, particularly when I wanted to make something or do creative work.

hluska 3y ago

Great advice! My seven year old went from doing animations with Scratch to drawing flip books. Now when she consumes media m, it’s usually about getting better at animation. Needless to say, everyone who knows me in person sees clips of all her animations. And for some reason, it seems like they avoid me…:)

number6 3y ago
Are there clips online? There could be an even broader audience