this is pretty hilarious

[nature boy]

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/08/31/gu ... e-its-1986
so who wants to try it?

[Duncan]

i'm gonna grow a mullet to make it worthwhile...

[joel]

i actually think this is a good idea.

[nature boy]

winnie, who hates all things technology (or she just hates it when i'm using technology and not doing the boring crap that she thinks i should be doing), even said that she can't see how this would be feasible. the kids wouldn't make it through school. and they'd have no friends haha.

[joel]

i assume their kids already have friends. besides they can rock that old school nintendo/super mario together or better yet just play outside. it's completely feasible, the family has already proven it for more than half a year.

i think we'd be surprised what things we can live without, if we actually committed ourselves to it...

[nature boy]

i think the 2 year old would be fine, he won't have "friends" anyway. but the 5 year old would be in either kindergarten or grade 1, and that's when it'd be tough. remember, he's also not allowed to use the technology even outside the house or belonging to someone else.
"hey wanna come over to play playstation?"
"no, i live in 1986"
"you're weird"
foreveralone.jpg

[joel]

or it could go,
"hey wanna come over to play street hockey?"
"yeah!"

or replace "street hockey" with almost any other non-technology requiring activity. i can think of way more things kids can do that don't require technology than do require it.

[nature boy]

so can i. but then, i was raised in the 80's.
my youth play hockey, but waaaaaaaay less than they're skyping, playing xbox live, surfing the net, making or watching youtube videos. heck, my kids are even getting there. the sad fact of life is that this is how kids interact now.

this whole thing came about because of the 5 year-old's refusal to go outside because he was too busy playing games on his ipad. you think that's the only case that has ever happened to a kid his age? sadly, it's become the norm over the exception. i know this because i see kids on a daily basis at our preschool, and probably 95% of them are the same that way. even at our family gatherings, we never bring the ipad for ryan to play with so he can socialise with his cousins. but that doesn't mean jack all when all his cousins have their ipads with them.

[joel]

[nature boy]

oh, no i totally understand what you're saying, i'm just saying that the benefit is more for the parents than the kids for various reasons. i don't think this year will ruin the kids' lives, but i do think it'll alienate them in a way that i would be willing to subject my kids to for the sake of an experiment.

ryan just watches his cousins play over their shoulders (something the kids in the article wouldn't be allowed to do). sometimes he'll just play on winnie's iphone, but he wouldn't be interacting with his cousins (who are all playing a game together).

[joel]

[nature boy]

eh? i never suggested that we do it. in fact, we'd never do it as i mentioned even winnie is against the idea (and she's not a fan of technology).
as for me, i love technology, not as much as you, see, but still, i love technology. always and forever. *tear.

[joel]

you did the no ipad thing. which is basically a much lesser degree of what the parents in the article are doing. which is limiting the use of technology. you do it in certain circumstances. they are doing it in all circumstances but the use of their car.

also it doesn't sound all that beneficial for the parents of the article either, since the Dad already says it makes his work more difficult and he lost clients because of it. if anything i think this is more inconvenient for parents than it is a child. but that's just my opinion. my guess is that most kids, especially the younger they are would use technology for leisure type activities. where as adults generally need use of these technologies for functional purposes.

I would think if the parents adopted such an experiment or any type of technology limiting that applies family wide it's not for their own benefit but to try to help their kids learn something about it, or adapting without it. as you said, you don't bring the ipad for the family dinners for ryan's benefit of socializing more.

[nature boy]

well, i should have said we don't bring the ipad out so he could socialise more, and also because that thing is big and bulky and annoying to carry haha. we don't disallow him from playing with the other plethora of ipads that would be present though, as the family in the article would.

and you have a point about the benefit thing. i supposed the perceived benefit is more for the parents than the kids, and that's probably because the parents came up with the idea.