Advice Requested
The kid likes to do nothing better these last few days of summer vacation, than sit on her bed, laptop in lap, watching Youtube videos and reading posts on the F My Life site.
It drives her parents nuts, but that’s probably the point, right? I’m sure it’s no worse for her—and probably slightly better—than how I liked to plop myself down in front of our black and white television set all August long, glued to re-runs of Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island.
The paternalistic concern here is twofold: first, it’s a beautiful day, go outside and play, but we all know that children from time immemorial have always preferred to stay inside the cave captivated by the light from the fire rather than go out in the world and have to make their fun with mastodon bones and mud; second, though, and this is the greater worry: our child is going to grow up without the creative skills to make her way in the world; she’ll end up living in our basement watching the mid-21st century equivalent of Youtube videos—holograms, probably—lonely, unhappy, and without the requisite skills to fend for herself in the highly-competitive global marketplace of the future.
But maybe she’s developing those skills right now; after all, most of the young people I know make their livings these days staring into computer screens all day long; maybe the kid is currently honing exactly the sort of abilities she’ll need to make it in the world of tomorrow.
I kinda doubt that, though; it’s hard to see how anyone’s going to pay her for surfing the web; they’ll be robots to do that by the time she reaches maturity.
Ironically, it wasn’t too long ago that I’d have given anything for her to be able to amuse herself—even with computer assistance—for hours at an end.
Just goes to show, be careful what you wish for, especially for your progeny.
It drives her parents nuts, but that’s probably the point, right? I’m sure it’s no worse for her—and probably slightly better—than how I liked to plop myself down in front of our black and white television set all August long, glued to re-runs of Star Trek and Gilligan’s Island.
The paternalistic concern here is twofold: first, it’s a beautiful day, go outside and play, but we all know that children from time immemorial have always preferred to stay inside the cave captivated by the light from the fire rather than go out in the world and have to make their fun with mastodon bones and mud; second, though, and this is the greater worry: our child is going to grow up without the creative skills to make her way in the world; she’ll end up living in our basement watching the mid-21st century equivalent of Youtube videos—holograms, probably—lonely, unhappy, and without the requisite skills to fend for herself in the highly-competitive global marketplace of the future.
But maybe she’s developing those skills right now; after all, most of the young people I know make their livings these days staring into computer screens all day long; maybe the kid is currently honing exactly the sort of abilities she’ll need to make it in the world of tomorrow.
I kinda doubt that, though; it’s hard to see how anyone’s going to pay her for surfing the web; they’ll be robots to do that by the time she reaches maturity.
Ironically, it wasn’t too long ago that I’d have given anything for her to be able to amuse herself—even with computer assistance—for hours at an end.
Just goes to show, be careful what you wish for, especially for your progeny.
posted by Professor Dave at 3:07 PM
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