[Celerity]

The way that tablets are used in SciFi movies is great. The expectation / reality is starkly opposite.

And that’s what happens whenever you give the masses an amazing technology. They abuse it and have sex with it.

I’m getting my daughter on a balanced digital environment. I’ve given her an e-reader to start with (removed online functionality, and she uses it for books).

But we only use it together. When we’re done, I take it with me. We don’t set time limits on things, we set tasks on them. Before bed we still read and she has access to her books all day long.

I’m getting ready to incorporate a 21” tablet PC into her life. It’s a windows 10 computer with a kid-friendly interface already built in. But it’s content will be similar. e-books, a notepad, some photos and video capability.

This is what the sci-fi movies have shown me. They have shown me a world where people refer to the computer screen, but then put them down. 5 minutes is usually spent with them.

A computer is not a communication device. It CAN be, but even the video calling and stuff that relatives do diminishes their time together when we travel the several states to see people. It’s having a negative impact.

So the next approach is to build a solid face-to-face relationship with everyone, THEN supplement it with video calling. But she’s two years old, so there is plenty of time.

At 2 years old it seems that the parents are more excited to put tech in front of them than the kids are to adopt it themselves.

[MamaB]

When my great granddaughter was about that age, she would tell her grandmother, “puter, Mamie, puter.” She finally got her own at Christmas. Now, she is 8 but I am not around her as much as when she was younger.

[Ozark Tom]

The issue is substitution of interaction within the limited virtual world, versus interaction with people not subject to an off switch. Digital opium--forerunner of wireheads?

Should airdrop these on parts of the world as a means of pacification, those that haven't signed themselves up already. Would only be fair and impartial to hamstring their youth in a similar manner.

10.1126/science.127.3294.315

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/127/3294/315

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The way that tablets are used in SciFi movies is great.

I agree...but it goes both ways.

Star Trek: The Original Series. Supposedly it takes place in the 24th century.

Captain Kirk is on the bridge in his chair. Yeoman Janice Rand exits the turbolift and heads to Kirk's side. She hands him a rather thick looking clipboard and a stylus. Kirk signs or makes a notation on it. Why? It's the 24th century. Why didn't she just send him the memo over Wi-fi?

Fast forward. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Same scenario except Picard is handed a thin digital tablet. He pokes a couple of things on the tablet and hands it back to the person who gave it to him. Why? Couldn't Picard receive these updates on his own tablet or the screen in his Ready Room?