Children Using E-books a Growing Concern for Some

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Emperor, what an outrageous bunch of crap. I swear, the only toys my kids will ever get will be tons of computer hardware and software to play around with; who the hell wants to waste time with anything non-digital? I remember myself as a kid - once I was able to start messing with computers, I was not interested in any crappy "toys" that kids are supposed to play with (toy cars, etc) - in our age, learning can be MUCH faster if not artificially slowed down by crappy media which forces kids to watch retarded non-educational cartoons and "shows" and convinces them to waste their time staying away from tech. I never had any kind of Internet access restriction, "safe for kids" devices or whatever modern hypocritic media overflows with. Give the kids space and opportunity to experiment and develop, remove negative outside influence of the "media", and they'll pleasantly surprise you./rant over[/citation]Playing while using some extent of imagination can be very important to developing creativity beyond what can be done with digital entertainment.

I built Lego civilizations growing up--with a tech tree, resources, and specific rules of war. Defining the culture and art of an original civilization is not a waste of time, despite being non-digital. I built Lego buildings tall enough so that we had to stop because of the ceiling fan--then auctioned off the floors of the building for the city we used them with. I guess toy cars were similar for me too with auctions and racing competitions.

Obviously, if the kids were to code their own computer games (anyone over 7 is capable of learning this), then that has potential to be equally beneficial to my experience with Legos. I know people who never take apart their Lego sets--I thoroughly condemn that use of Legos.

Now I do agree that most of the media kids are exposed to is utter crap, but I disagree with the idea that learning need be software-based. However, I still will put some parental controls on my kids' Internet as there are countless things they don't need to be accidentally exposed to.

 

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]willard[/nom]High school is really, really easy man. I basically slept through it and got straight As, and so did a lot of people I know. It's not exactly hard. If you'd taught yourself the chain rule, or how to calculate the area under a plane, or integrate trigonometric and/or exponential functions, or even simple things like how to solve systems of linear equations with many unknowns using matrices, I'd be a little more impressed. But middle school and high school math? Meh, that crap is easy.[/citation]The difficulty of high school depends greatly on your school. For example, I essentially slept through 1 class a day and did 30 minutes of homework a day outside of class (the rest was in-class). And I got almost all A's. Then I got to college and ended up on Academic Probation one quarter in Civil Engineering at UCLA because my work ethic was so atrocious. But my brother thought Civil Engineering at UCLA was much easier than his high school. It all depends on where you go.

As far as your threats about how hard college will be for that guy--I dunno. How good of grades are you talking about? If you want to be Valedictorian, sure it'll be tough. If you just get a 2.6 like I did, then you can play on the lacrosse team (not NCAA or related to admissions), direct student projects 20 hours a week, work 20 hours a week, party half the night, then play poker the other half, and hang out with your girlfriend on weekends and STILL get a degree.

In retrospect, I should've skipped 1/3 the stuff I did in college and gotten a 3.0.


@amk-aka-Phantom, Yes American High School is MUCH easier. That's why Britain has one of the best school systems and we have one of the worst in the developed world (Let me know if it's not WORST.)

 

[madcowchicken3]

crappy media which forces kids to watch retarded non-educational cartoons and "shows" and convinces them to waste their time staying away from tech

Unfortunately, other people are not like you. You are different, and the difference might be very sharp. It is impossible for other people to think and understand like you do. Their bodies receive dopamine for things that yours does not, and vise-versa. It can be a game changer. People need people in their lives. These "retarded shows" can be useful tools for learning to converse with your peers. You would never be able to hear and reuse phrases like "this really pumps my nads" or "you need to check your attitude at the door" if you live in a box. Your cool peers won't be aware of this, but almost everything they say comes from media or other people. They have logged 1000's of hours of exposure while box dwellers have logged 0. And it would be wise for several reasons not to point this out to anyone you know. Perhaps if you view "retarded shows" as tools, you will get something from them, and even start to enjoy them. My parents didn't talk to me, I had no sibblings, and to top things off we didn't have cable TV until I was much older. When your choices are Ricki Lake, the shopping channel, or watching the same VHS tape for the 1000th time, you're pretty much fucked. Don't fall into the same trap that I did. (And the funny thing is, as colossal of a let down as this was on the part of my parents, it wasn't even close to my biggest obstacle in life.) Knowledge is power.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]dalauder[/nom]Playing while using some extent of imagination can be very important to developing creativity beyond what can be done with digital entertainment.I built Lego civilizations growing up--with a tech tree, resources, and specific rules of war. Defining the culture and art of an original civilization is not a waste of time, despite being non-digital. I built Lego buildings tall enough so that we had to stop because of the ceiling fan--then auctioned off the floors of the building for the city we used them with. I guess toy cars were similar for me too with auctions and racing competitions.Obviously, if the kids were to code their own computer games (anyone over 7 is capable of learning this), then that has potential to be equally beneficial to my experience with Legos. I know people who never take apart their Lego sets--I thoroughly condemn that use of Legos.Now I do agree that most of the media kids are exposed to is utter crap, but I disagree with the idea that learning need be software-based. However, I still will put some parental controls on my kids' Internet as there are countless things they don't need to be accidentally exposed to.[/citation]

No, no, that's not what I meant. Legos are holy. I will never let go of them But things like "action figures" and other crap promoted to kids... utter waste of time.


[citation][nom]madcowchicken3[/nom]Unfortunately, other people are not like you. You are different, and the difference might be very sharp. It is impossible for other people to think and understand like you do. Their bodies receive dopamine for things that yours does not, and vise-versa. It can be a game changer. People need people in their lives. These "retarded shows" can be useful tools for learning to converse with your peers. You would never be able to hear and reuse phrases like "this really pumps my nads" or "you need to check your attitude at the door" if you live in a box. Your cool peers won't be aware of this, but almost everything they say comes from media or other people. They have logged 1000's of hours of exposure while box dwellers have logged 0. And it would be wise for several reasons not to point this out to anyone you know. Perhaps if you view "retarded shows" as tools, you will get something from them, and even start to enjoy them. My parents didn't talk to me, I had no sibblings, and to top things off we didn't have cable TV until I was much older. When your choices are Ricki Lake, the shopping channel, or watching the same VHS tape for the 1000th time, you're pretty much fucked. Don't fall into the same trap that I did. (And the funny thing is, as colossal of a let down as this was on the part of my parents, it wasn't even close to my biggest obstacle in life.) Knowledge is power.[/citation]

I have no desire to spend time with people who watch the shows I had in mind. South Park is about the only thing I like from them If I have to choose between the crap you listed, I'd rather go and do something else than watch TV.

 

[dalauder]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]No, no, that's not what I meant. Legos are holy. I will never let go of them But things like "action figures" and other crap promoted to kids... utter waste of time.

I have no desire to spend time with people who watch the shows I had in mind. South Park is about the only thing I like from them If I have to choose between the crap you listed, I'd rather go and do something else than watch TV.[/citation]Okay, action figures (except for Transformers) are a complete waste of time and I never had any.

TV, on the whole, is mind-numbingly terrible. I do love certain sports live and watch a couple shows regularly on Hulu, like 30 Rock, for example. But for the most part, I pretty much only "watch" TV while doing something else like gaming on my PC or doing dishes.