Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's highly addictive.

My son was totally into it for a while... and then he wasn't.

I really liked it. My kid played on a restricted server with all his buddies. It was more social interaction than he'd ever had before. It was great. They worked stuff out cooperatively.

If your kid is attracted to these kinds of children, excluding him from Minecraft could leave him outside what the kids are doing, and generally, the minecraft kids with whom I wanted to encourage friendships.

Seriously? It's delusional to think that boys sitting alone in their bedrooms while "playing with" boys via their computers qualifies as social time. Good grief.

Actually, that's not how they did it. They usually were paired off physically, and were on skype at the same time, chatting away.

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. There are still people out there who seriously think a 5 year old needs to start learning about technology. The technology he will be exposed to and needing to deal with when he is 20 is a completely different one, than the one that is around today. No child needs to know how an iPad works at age 5. Honestly...are any of you aware that there are 1-2 year olds who can handle an iPad? What does that tell you about how hard it is or how long it would take someone to pick it up if they never did it before? Really!?

Children have no need for technology. You try to make them and us believe that they do - but they just don't. Once they enter high school - maybe. Once they enter college - surely. Once they enter the job world...the basic stuff, absolutely. Programming? Coding? Only if their job takes them that way. In our world today everyone picks up the necessary skills almost automatically. A child does not need to learn how to type on a keyboard before they get into the teenage years. Honestly, no child even actually needs to 'learn' that either. Just having them exposed to PC and internet from an appropriate age on automatically slowly has them pick up the typing skill. There is exactly ZERO need to start at age 1 with introducing children to technology. Zero. And if you feel differently and really have your young children have screen time daily from birth I feel sorry for their brain development.

First, nobody here is talking about technology exposure from birth. Why do these things always degenerate into the extremes on either side of the issue?

Second, yes, it's actually harder for people with no or limited exposure to deal with what we consider to be common, everyday technology. I volunteer with the local jail teaching very basic computer skills, because while many lower income people have access to a smart phone, that's the extent of their tech knowledge. They get very intimidated trying to navigate basic data entry on a fast food cash register or at an oil change place that has a real computer screen.

Third, appropriate exposure to technology in the elementary years is similar to appropriate exposure to everything else. We expose our kids to different hobbies, books, music, travel, etc. Exposing them to technology is no different. Some may develop a great love of coding. Others will at least get a cursory overview. I programmed in Basic when I was in sixth grade. That was the late 70s. I didn't love it, but I grew up to be able to develop a website for my brother's business when he was just starting out. And now, even though I work as a lawyer, I provide some basic website maintenance for my employer. Smaller businesses very often need and recruit people with these talents.

And I'm the one who said my generation had to learn typing. This generation has to learn coding. I'm old enough to have worked where businesses had huge support staff and the "professionals" hand wrote or dictated their legal briefs, analyses, or other written material. And I watched as the support staff shrank and people were expected to do their own typing, formatting, publishing. My husband is a journalist but he also does his own production work for radio and Tv -- which requires programming skills. It didn't used to. But businesses downsize and require more from their employees. I fully expect similar workforce changes to occur regarding technology over the next 50 years. Our children's prime career years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. There are still people out there who seriously think a 5 year old needs to start learning about technology. The technology he will be exposed to and needing to deal with when he is 20 is a completely different one, than the one that is around today. No child needs to know how an iPad works at age 5. Honestly...are any of you aware that there are 1-2 year olds who can handle an iPad? What does that tell you about how hard it is or how long it would take someone to pick it up if they never did it before? Really!?

Children have no need for technology. You try to make them and us believe that they do - but they just don't. Once they enter high school - maybe. Once they enter college - surely. Once they enter the job world...the basic stuff, absolutely. Programming? Coding? Only if their job takes them that way. In our world today everyone picks up the necessary skills almost automatically. A child does not need to learn how to type on a keyboard before they get into the teenage years. Honestly, no child even actually needs to 'learn' that either. Just having them exposed to PC and internet from an appropriate age on automatically slowly has them pick up the typing skill. There is exactly ZERO need to start at age 1 with introducing children to technology. Zero. And if you feel differently and really have your young children have screen time daily from birth I feel sorry for their brain development.

? My kid turns in typed papers in fifth grade. As a typist myself, I want him to learn the proper way to type and not just hunt and peck. Kids should be taking good quality keyboarding classes before the teen years for sure.

Starting in later elementary school my children had school assignments that were REQUIRED to be typed. And assignments that involved internet research. If I insisted that my child not use a computer until an "appropriate age" and defined that age as the teen years, it would have made completing those assignments in the manner specified rather difficult. Not sure where you came up with that age limit from.

And honestly, I think you need to relax a bit. This isn't the huge deal you seem to think it is. Technology is like nearly everything else in that it's perfectly fine used in moderation and a potential problem if used too much. It's not some evil thing that's going to destroy your child's mind unless you let it get to that point by providing your kid with no guidance about how to use it properly.

I subscribe to the "forbidden fruit" theory for everything that is not innately harmful or immoral, and I would rather model for my kids how to use technology as only one part of a balanced, healthy, fulfilling lifestyle than ban it until their teen years and have them so desperate to 'catch up' on what they feel they've been missing out on that they go crazy.

DD's teacher actively encouraged parents to start working on typing. This was 3rd grade.

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. There are still people out there who seriously think a 5 year old needs to start learning about technology. The technology he will be exposed to and needing to deal with when he is 20 is a completely different one, than the one that is around today. No child needs to know how an iPad works at age 5. Honestly...are any of you aware that there are 1-2 year olds who can handle an iPad? What does that tell you about how hard it is or how long it would take someone to pick it up if they never did it before? Really!?

Children have no need for technology. You try to make them and us believe that they do - but they just don't. Once they enter high school - maybe. Once they enter college - surely. Once they enter the job world...the basic stuff, absolutely. Programming? Coding? Only if their job takes them that way. In our world today everyone picks up the necessary skills almost automatically. A child does not need to learn how to type on a keyboard before they get into the teenage years. Honestly, no child even actually needs to 'learn' that either. Just having them exposed to PC and internet from an appropriate age on automatically slowly has them pick up the typing skill. There is exactly ZERO need to start at age 1 with introducing children to technology. Zero. And if you feel differently and really have your young children have screen time daily from birth I feel sorry for their brain development.

LMAO

How old are your kids? No need for technology hmm. "Maybe" in high school? Have fun with that one, school included.

I feel sorry for YOUR kids.

On topic.. my son played minecraft for a while. He's on to other things now. For those of you worried about it, put a limit on it.

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. There are still people out there who seriously think a 5 year old needs to start learning about technology. The technology he will be exposed to and needing to deal with when he is 20 is a completely different one, than the one that is around today. No child needs to know how an iPad works at age 5. Honestly...are any of you aware that there are 1-2 year olds who can handle an iPad? What does that tell you about how hard it is or how long it would take someone to pick it up if they never did it before? Really!?

Children have no need for technology. You try to make them and us believe that they do - but they just don't. Once they enter high school - maybe. Once they enter college - surely. Once they enter the job world...the basic stuff, absolutely. Programming? Coding? Only if their job takes them that way. In our world today everyone picks up the necessary skills almost automatically. A child does not need to learn how to type on a keyboard before they get into the teenage years. Honestly, no child even actually needs to 'learn' that either. Just having them exposed to PC and internet from an appropriate age on automatically slowly has them pick up the typing skill. There is exactly ZERO need to start at age 1 with introducing children to technology. Zero. And if you feel differently and really have your young children have screen time daily from birth I feel sorry for their brain development.

? My kid turns in typed papers in fifth grade. As a typist myself, I want him to learn the proper way to type and not just hunt and peck. Kids should be taking good quality keyboarding classes before the teen years for sure.

Oh my. There are still people out there who seriously think a 5 year old needs to start learning about technology. The technology he will be exposed to and needing to deal with when he is 20 is a completely different one, than the one that is around today. No child needs to know how an iPad works at age 5. Honestly...are any of you aware that there are 1-2 year olds who can handle an iPad? What does that tell you about how hard it is or how long it would take someone to pick it up if they never did it before? Really!?

Children have no need for technology. You try to make them and us believe that they do - but they just don't. Once they enter high school - maybe. Once they enter college - surely. Once they enter the job world...the basic stuff, absolutely. Programming? Coding? Only if their job takes them that way. In our world today everyone picks up the necessary skills almost automatically. A child does not need to learn how to type on a keyboard before they get into the teenage years. Honestly, no child even actually needs to 'learn' that either. Just having them exposed to PC and internet from an appropriate age on automatically slowly has them pick up the typing skill. There is exactly ZERO need to start at age 1 with introducing children to technology. Zero. And if you feel differently and really have your young children have screen time daily from birth I feel sorry for their brain development.

Thank you to this thread for teaching me about scratch and also for letting me know there are other people out there who think exposure to computers, technology, and code at an early age is a GOOD thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's highly addictive.

My son was totally into it for a while... and then he wasn't.

I really liked it. My kid played on a restricted server with all his buddies. It was more social interaction than he'd ever had before. It was great. They worked stuff out cooperatively.

If your kid is attracted to these kinds of children, excluding him from Minecraft could leave him outside what the kids are doing, and generally, the minecraft kids with whom I wanted to encourage friendships.

Seriously? It's delusional to think that boys sitting alone in their bedrooms while "playing with" boys via their computers qualifies as social time. Good grief.

Anonymous wrote:It's highly addictive.

My son was totally into it for a while... and then he wasn't.

I really liked it. My kid played on a restricted server with all his buddies. It was more social interaction than he'd ever had before. It was great. They worked stuff out cooperatively.

If your kid is attracted to these kinds of children, excluding him from Minecraft could leave him outside what the kids are doing, and generally, the minecraft kids with whom I wanted to encourage friendships.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh...Kids do not NEED TO LEARN coding, computer language and how technology works. If you choose to go that route with your kids - fine. But don't transfer your opinion on all other kids. Not everyone wants to be an IT guy when they grow up -.-

In what alternate universe do you live? Kids don't need to learn how technology works? You don't have to grow up to be an "IT guy" to need technology. Even the cash registers at McDonald's are computerized! I can't think of very many fields where technology in some form is not used. There really is no way to avoid technology and any parent who tries to shield their kids from it is putting their kids at an enormous disadvantage.

Oh for goodness sake. It's not like it takes years of skill-building to use 99% of work-related "technology". We're not saying that our kids can't learn to use a cashregister or iPad or powerpoint. We're talking about playing video games. No, I don't think modern video games are healthy or useful in any way at all. Kids don't need personal electronic devices or their own phone or to play video games to be able to use "technology" as an adult. And to be honest, it's a very, very small percentage of kids that are going to magically translate their 7 year old (educational games only!) iPad, 10 year old video games, or 11 year old facebook account into a deep and brilliant love for computer coding.

Yawn...Thanks for the useless and boring lecture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh...Kids do not NEED TO LEARN coding, computer language and how technology works. If you choose to go that route with your kids - fine. But don't transfer your opinion on all other kids. Not everyone wants to be an IT guy when they grow up -.-

In what alternate universe do you live? Kids don't need to learn how technology works? You don't have to grow up to be an "IT guy" to need technology. Even the cash registers at McDonald's are computerized! I can't think of very many fields where technology in some form is not used. There really is no way to avoid technology and any parent who tries to shield their kids from it is putting their kids at an enormous disadvantage.

Oh for goodness sake. It's not like it takes years of skill-building to use 99% of work-related "technology". We're not saying that our kids can't learn to use a cashregister or iPad or powerpoint. We're talking about playing video games. No, I don't think modern video games are healthy or useful in any way at all. Kids don't need personal electronic devices or their own phone or to play video games to be able to use "technology" as an adult. And to be honest, it's a very, very small percentage of kids that are going to magically translate their 7 year old (educational games only!) iPad, 10 year old video games, or 11 year old facebook account into a deep and brilliant love for computer coding.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh...Kids do not NEED TO LEARN coding, computer language and how technology works. If you choose to go that route with your kids - fine. But don't transfer your opinion on all other kids. Not everyone wants to be an IT guy when they grow up -.-

Right, like not everyone our age has to type. There's support staff for that.

Oh wait.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh...Kids do not NEED TO LEARN coding, computer language and how technology works. If you choose to go that route with your kids - fine. But don't transfer your opinion on all other kids. Not everyone wants to be an IT guy when they grow up -.-

In what alternate universe do you live? Kids don't need to learn how technology works? You don't have to grow up to be an "IT guy" to need technology. Even the cash registers at McDonald's are computerized! I can't think of very many fields where technology in some form is not used. There really is no way to avoid technology and any parent who tries to shield their kids from it is putting their kids at an enormous disadvantage.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh...Kids do not NEED TO LEARN coding, computer language and how technology works. If you choose to go that route with your kids - fine. But don't transfer your opinion on all other kids. Not everyone wants to be an IT guy when they grow up -.-

You are kidding, right? Kids don't need to know technology in what field?

I work in finance which it's IT or coding but if you want to be a banker, lawyer, venture capitalist, etc., you better know about technology.