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How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

theguardian.com

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Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#51

Post by ImaCake »

Recently, I have been trying to play video games in the same way as I would read a book i.e. I play the story or the interactive puzzles and events until I am finished or satisifed, and then move on.

I find I get very similar things from a good video game and a good book. Both entertain me, but also educate me and make me think about the world in a different way. The main difference is that each format has different strengths, books tend to change how I describe the world or find insight into ideas and things. A good game changes how I experience the world. "The Last of Us" made me really focus on the sounds around me in a way I hadn't before, "Cities Skylines" made me think of the visible and hidden networks that keep our cities functioning.

Do others have similar impressions?

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#52

Post by SirensOfTitan »

bodas wrote: post #42
Waterluvian wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't get why screens are a bad thing. Find balance. Don't demonize the screens. Don't underbalance screen time. We hope all these kids will be successful enough that screens become a core of their careers.

Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside, and not have to sit in front of a screen. FWIW I don't think books are a good use of time either.

> Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside

I spend plenty of time outside as an adult. How exactly do adults lose their freedom to enjoy the outside?

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#53

Post by magic_beans »

madrox wrote: post #3
lihaciudaniel wrote: post #2

As a full time kid and an ex minecraft player, I think that's a way to get into books. The only way I got into books was by trying hard at first to read on my phone (it was hard and boring for a month I was reading during boring classes at school). But now a year later I've never read any paper books, all the books I've read are ebooks.

> But now a year later I've never read any paper books, all the books I've read are ebooks. This is the most mind-blowing thing I've read on HN. It really makes me appreciate generational differences.

I've been a die-hard paper book reader, but ever since I got a kindle a year ago, I only consume e-books. I have much less book clutter in my apartment now, and I can get any book I want immediately.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#54

Post by pnutjam »

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #26
madrox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But now a year later I've never read any paper books, all the books I've read are ebooks. This is the most mind-blowing thing I've read on HN. It really makes me appreciate generational differences.

I'm around 40 and haven't read a physical book since the Kindle came out. Same goes for most the people around me (including parents and older friends). I think I know one single person who reads physical books, and they're a collector/enthusiast. I don't think it's generational rather just some people "clicked" with ebooks and some didn't. I couldn't live without search, saving passages, device handover, hold-click…

I've always read a book or two a week and I switched to ebooks just because they are so much more accessible and easier to carry. I used to dread being at the end of a book before something tedious like a doctors appt or long car ride. Now I just finish it and flip to another book or grab one off my calibre server.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#55

Post by pnutjam »

chatmasta wrote: post #33
madrox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But now a year later I've never read any paper books, all the books I've read are ebooks. This is the most mind-blowing thing I've read on HN. It really makes me appreciate generational differences.

You must be living under a rock then, because Amazon has sold millions of kindles. They are not all kids buying them. Kindle causes me to read far more than I would otherwise. A few reasons: - Hundreds of books fit in a space smaller than a single physical book - Can read at night without an overhead light bothering myself or anyone else (and without blue light!) - Can travel (and/or move houses) without books taking…

I read everything on my phone, because I don't want to carry another device. I sync things with my calibre server.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#56

Post by pnutjam »

tzs wrote: post #24
Freak_NL wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't already, why not get (or ask for) an e-reader with an e-ink display? Reading from paper or e-ink is a lot less detrimental to your eyesight. When reading in the evenings that has the benefit of not affecting your circadian rhythm as much (which normal screens tend to do).

I'm a bit skeptical of many of the claims that paper or e-ink in the evening has less effect on circadian rhythms than a normal screen does. What would be the mechanism for this? One claim I've seen is that it is because they are frontlit rather than backlit. But to the photosensor cells that sense the light and report to the parts of the brain that control circadian rhythms, it should just be frequency and intensity…

I always switch my ereader to black background and yellow font during the day. At night I have an orange font if it's really dark, but usually I just dim the yellow font.

I hate reading black font on a white background, too bright.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#57

Post by pnutjam »

wild_preference wrote: post #21
genidoi wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything in moderation. Such as stopping your 11 y/o kid from playing runescape at 2am when they should be sleeping. Source: Me.

15 years ago I was setting my alarm for 2am to sneak some before-school Runescape! The growing discussion thee days on the long-term effects of sleep deprivation, especially in youth, is a bit scary. :)

Pre-runescape here, 2am alarm was for skinimax.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#58

Post by LoSboccacc »

riffraff wrote: post #8
LoSboccacc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a pre-computer kid I say blaming screens is bogus. I’d do anything not to read the stupid books school gave me. Fun thing I actually was an avid reader, but the curriculum books were totally out of place. At 12yo “Promessi Sposi” and “Divina Commedia” is such a shitty, verbose and convolute prose it killed my interest in literature. Funnily enough I was enjoying at the time reading Calvino and Pirandello, authors…

Eh, fellow italian I presume, and I concur half-way. But did you really have "Promessi Sposi" as 12yo? I recall having it in the high school curriculum, some 5 years later. It is downright illegible for a small kid anyway, I 100% agree. For me, the teachers' recommended readings for the summer were things of the "good educational readings" kind (To Kill a Mockingbird, Fontamara, Cronache di Poveri Amanti, Il Giardino…

yeah I'm pretty sure I was twelve, I was in a summer camp in Ireland and it was the year the blur great escape album came out, we had some leftover chapter to read as summer vacation and I had to bring the book with me. inthe nineties curriculum changed at breakneck speed so anything is possible anyway.

Re: How Minecraft is helping kids fall in love with books

#59

Post by Nullabillity »

bodas wrote: post #42
Waterluvian wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't get why screens are a bad thing. Find balance. Don't demonize the screens. Don't underbalance screen time. We hope all these kids will be successful enough that screens become a core of their careers.

Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside, and not have to sit in front of a screen. FWIW I don't think books are a good use of time either.

> freedom to enjoy the outside

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

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