Kids React to...Game Boy

[+wood_jl]

I'm thinking the "Kids React to...." series is just about as "real" as any "reality" TV show.

[mipaol]

 

...and it will be even more tightly integrated into day-to-day activites, i.e., something you can't be without.

 

Having to rely on some device to the point of feeling like you can't be without it is something people should embrace?

 

Not me, the day I feel like I can't live without some device is the day it goes in a drawer or gets sold, being that dependent on a machine seems more like an addiction than an improvement of one's quality of life.

 

If anything kids growing up today should be encouraged not to rely on these pervasive devices, rather treat them as a secondary option to being able to do things for themselves. Unless of course we want more people who can't do intermediate math or recall basic historical information without a device to help them.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Having to rely on some device to the point of feeling like you can't be without it is something people should embrace?

 

Not me, the day I feel like I can't live without some device is the day it goes in a drawer or gets sold, being that dependent on a machine seems more like an addiction than an improvement of one's quality of life.

 

If anything kids growing up today should be encouraged not to rely on these pervasive devices, rather treat them as a secondary option to being able to do things for themselves. Unless of course we want more people who can't do intermediate math or recall basic historical information without a device to help them.

 

You could take your pessimistic view, or, alternatively, you could say that technology has connected and empowered the individual more than ever before possible. Also, I wouldn't exactly call memorizing and recalling facts as the high point of learning. I would much rather have my children be empowered to find and parse through exactly the information they need using the technology at hand than memorize something by rote. Technology is not something to be feared, but something to embrace as inevitable. The key is using in it a positive manner as new developments happen.

[Omega-TI]

Gameboy... Nawwww CYBIKO! 900Mhz wireless, free games, rechargable, head-to-head, networkable, etc.

[atarilovesyou]

Ya know, I was a teen when GB came out and while we were grateful to be able to have video games on the go, the screen was terrible and everybody knew it. I remember how disappointing playing Mario Land was, with the blurry image while scrolling. There were still fun times to be had, but we all knew it had a long way to go. Especially when the Lynx was out there, but it had some blurry action as well.

 

ASAIC, portable gaming didn't get 'worth it' until the GBA came out.

[jaybird3rd]

You could take your pessimistic view, or, alternatively, you could say that technology has connected and empowered the individual more than ever before possible. Also, I wouldn't exactly call memorizing and recalling facts as the high point of learning. I would much rather have my children be empowered to find and parse through exactly the information they need using the technology at hand than memorize something by rote. Technology is not something to be feared, but something to embrace as inevitable. The key is using in it a positive manner as new developments happen.

In certain ways, these technologies has of course been empowering. But there's a price involved: we're starting to learn more about the long-term cognitive effects of constant exposure to the Web, and portable devices have only helped to made that exposure even more pervasive. In particular, here's a counterpoint to the "memorization isn't important when you can instantly look up everything you need" view:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI

 

If I had kids, I'd be very concerned to limit this kind of exposure as much as possible. Use the technology in positive ways, yes, but keep its role strictly delimited ... and don't put portables worth hundreds of dollars into the hands of eight-year-olds who still have other (and much more important) kinds of learning and developing to do.

[Rhomaios]

^Not to mention the dozens upon dozens of studies that show that services like Facebook lowers self-esteem...

[jaybird3rd]

^Not to mention the dozens upon dozens of studies that show that services like Facebook lowers self-esteem...

... especially when they use it as a kind of worldwide Skinner Box, as they've apparently been doing.

[+Gemintronic]

I think the danger is not in the technology as a crutch. The danger is in the next generations utter surrender of what we call privacy and ownership thanks to Lifeinvader Facebook.

[Bill Loguidice]

If I had kids, I'd be very concerned to limit this kind of exposure as much as possible. Use the technology in positive ways, yes, but keep its role strictly delimited ... and don't put portables worth hundreds of dollars into the hands of eight-year-olds.

 

This is a good summary of my thoughts on the "limits" subject: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/06/30/quantification

 

Of course, too much of anything is a bad thing, but it's not the kind of thing that can easily have hard limits put onto it. I know how I learned as a kid when using my computer, videogame console, etc., was simply to be left to my own devices and explore. Those were just one of the elements in my "growing up" arsenal, along with a well rounded diet of everything else it means to be a kid. I allow my girls to pursue any interests that they have, electronic or otherwise (and my oldest daughter is definitely a chip off the old block in terms of electronics), with limits only when it becomes either obsessive or some other problem. It's pretty clear when a line is crossed, and certainly none of those activities can trump certain responsibilities, be it studying for a test, or any else of similar relative importance.

[Bixler]

In certain ways, these technologies has of course been empowering. But there's a price involved: we're starting to learn more about the long-term cognitive effects of constant exposure to the Web, and portable devices have only helped to made that exposure even more pervasive. In particular, here's a counterpoint to the "memorization isn't important when you can instantly look up everything you need" view:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI

 

If I had kids, I'd be very concerned to limit this kind of exposure as much as possible. Use the technology in positive ways, yes, but keep its role strictly delimited ... and don't put portables worth hundreds of dollars into the hands of eight-year-olds who still have other (and much more important) kinds of learning and developing to do.

You might be interested in this video:

Edited July 8, 2014 by Bixler

[mipaol]

Digital addictions for generation ADD. It's no wonder those kids struggled to play Tetris, the proliferation of "smart" devices and the subsequent information saturation they've caused is leading to a generation of people who can't focus on a single thing for longer than a few minutes, or experience something without a camera phone between them and whats going on, or hold a meaningful conversation outside a text message.

[Bill Loguidice]

Digital addictions for generation ADD. It's no wonder those kids struggled to play Tetris, the proliferation of "smart" devices and the subsequent information saturation they've caused is leading to a generation of people who can't focus on a single thing for longer than a few minutes, or experience something without a camera phone between them and whats going on, or hold a meaningful conversation outside a text message.

 

I.,e, what most people think as they age, "Those darn kids today..."

[+Gemintronic]

I think those two last videos infer that there is a lack of emotion or social interaction going on. I dunno if I concur on that. Also, I'm not sure if accessing lots of information is necessarily indicative of an attention deficit.

 

After the ColecoVision Flashback topic Bill wont even read my PMs. I was clearly an ass to him and I apologize. Nevertheless, it's a good example of feelings being exchanged without physical or even aural interaction. I don't think online interactions are teaching kids to feel less - just misdirect more.

 

I'm especially puzzled by the habit of being somewhere else (the cellphone) while in the company of family and friends RIGHT THERE. One should at least choose which place you currently "are".

[Bill Loguidice]

For the record, I read all of your PMs. I didn't think there was anything to respond to in the last one, but I'll check again. Without all this connected stuff, it's highly unlikely we'd even have the opportunity to ever meet in any capacity, let alone engage in misunderstandings.

[DesertJets]

People pissing and moaning about kids and technology on an internet message board while avoiding work.

[+davidcalgary29]

I'm thinking the "Kids React to...." series is just about as "real" as any "reality" TV show.

 

Seriously. The Xbox loses out every time to the ColecoVision in a competition for my kids' (5 and 6) attention. Perhaps I just live in a backwards area of the world, but nothing got the kids screaming and clapping more loudly at a recent birthday party than a round of Smurf Rescue.

[godslabrat]

Sometimes I get the impression that vintage gamers are like Gloria Swanson's character in Sunset Boulevard... glorifying the past, and convinced that the way we did things then was always better. We lament at what we've lost as things have changed and deny that things are radically different now.

 

As batshit crazy as that comparison makes us... I'm not convinced we're wrong.

 

 

[+wood_jl]

ASAIC, portable gaming didn't get 'worth it' until the GBA came out.

 

I'm almost with you there, but it was the GameBoy Color that got me to finally become interested, a little prior to the Advance, which I really liked (and still like) too.

 

 

Although the screen was still small and non-backlit on the Gameboy Color, it didn't blur with motion like the old Gameboys, and it played all of the old games and they were so much more visible, and the battery life was so good you didn't worry about it at all. The Gameboy Advance was more of the same and so much more!

 

The "worm light".....

 

 

......as ridiculous as it seems today - was really the thing that made these things so much more usable, until the later stuff came along that didn't need it.

[+Gemintronic]

For the record, I read all of your PMs. I didn't think there was anything to respond to in the last one, but I'll check again. Without all this connected stuff, it's highly unlikely we'd even have the opportunity to ever meet in any capacity, let alone engage in misunderstandings.

 

You never know! I've been frequenting classic game expos recently with my games. I might have to take off my backwards baseball hat so I can get an autograph

[+Random Terrain]

In certain ways, these technologies has of course been empowering. But there's a price involved: we're starting to learn more about the long-term cognitive effects of constant exposure to the Web, and portable devices have only helped to made that exposure even more pervasive. In particular, here's a counterpoint to the "memorization isn't important when you can instantly look up everything you need" view:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI

 

If I had kids, I'd be very concerned to limit this kind of exposure as much as possible. Use the technology in positive ways, yes, but keep its role strictly delimited ... and don't put portables worth hundreds of dollars into the hands of eight-year-olds who still have other (and much more important) kinds of learning and developing to do.

That video reminds me of the Randy Pausch time management video linked to below starting at 46m36s:

 

youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0?t=46m36s

 

Here's the text from that spot in the video:

 

I presume everybody here has e-mail. How many people here, when a new message comes in, does your computer go "ding" or make some other noise? Do we still have people doing that? What the heck is wrong with you people? I love the fact that computer scientists just know nothing about anything, so for years by default all these packages out of the box would go "ding" every time you get a new piece of e-mail, so we've taken a technology explicitly designed to reduce interruption and we've turned them into interruptions. So you just got to turn that off. The point of e-mail is you go to it when you're ready, not sitting around like Pavlov's dogs saying, "Oh, maybe I'll get another e-mail!"

But about the other stuff in the video you posted, hardly anything useful moves to my long-term memory and that has been happening long before the Internet existed. I cannot give you any specific facts without looking it up. The only thing in school that I could ever do is temporarily learn enough to get an adequate grade on a test, then most of it would quickly pour out of one of my ears onto the floor, then get swept away by the janitor.

[+save2600]

I thought (or wait, should I say "feel" like all the tiny toons say today?) this particular 'Kids React to' vid was frivolous at best. Pretty unimaginative and you're right about Tetris DesertJets. There are games that transcend time and Tetris is most definitely one of them.

 

"I feel the game should go here" or "where are the apps"? …ugghh. Hand that kid a Lame.com and see what thinks!

[+wongojack]

I go back and forth between being the old man yelling at the future and trying to convince everyone around me that in order for the human race to make progress, we need to develop new methods of assimilating more information. If you think about those few people who have come along who are absolute geniuses - They all needed more information and needed it faster. Besides various social barriers, the lack of quality information is what has held back our most brilliant minds.

 

Average (points finger at himself) people are going to have to continue to develop systems to deal with the flood of available information and multi-tasking is one of those ways. If that means we become more "computational" then maybe that is what we need to really drive forward. I'll stop short of the video by claiming that humanity is somehow "at stake," but there could be transformative changes ahead.

[Austin]

…ugghh. Hand that kid a Lame.com and see what thinks!

 

Don't even go there.. Because it has a touch screen, they will probably like it.

[+save2600]

 

Don't even go there.. Because it has a touch screen, they will probably like it.

 

…thus making the circle of cluelessness complete.