Has the Atlantic ever heard of the Amish?
Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
11–20 of 45 posts
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#12I guess that means watching a lot of ALF reruns.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#13Nothing new to see here, we've seen those experiments countless times before.
If one of them falls sick, they'll be glad for 2013 medical practices and technology.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#14Has the Atlantic ever heard of the Amish?
Yes, and they can even distinguish between the years 1886 and 1986.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#15Nothing new to see here, we've seen those experiments countless times before. If one of them falls sick, they'll be glad for 2013 medical practices and technology.
Why should we openly accept every new technology?
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#16Seems kind of harsh on the kids. Sure they don't need tech to play and won't notice it immediately but tech proficiency is so important and this day and age and he's setting his kids back with this, I want to say selfish, project.
Implicit in your objection are two assumptions I suspect are false:
• That not having access to technology at home for one year will have a meaningful impact on digital fluency 10+ years later.
• That in the technology vacuum no other skills or furtherment will develop which outweigh any minor delay in digital fluency.
I'm far more worried about what kids miss out on by being immersed in (distracting) technology than the negative consequences of them having a little less of it.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#17Seems kind of harsh on the kids. Sure they don't need tech to play and won't notice it immediately but tech proficiency is so important and this day and age and he's setting his kids back with this, I want to say selfish, project.
Some of the most interesting and free-spirited people I have known are those who weren't exposed to the internet from an early age (even just folks who didn't start using it until they were 16 or 17).
Starting this late, they never reached the level of proficiency required to close the hedonistic feedback loop and learn how to saturate their minds with awful internet memes (and harmonise with the hivemind's sense of humour). They also never adopted the socially calculating mindset that you see in the kind of person who grew up on MySpace and Facebook.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#18So to sum it up: the dad uses a computer at work and drives a 2010 car, but his son wears a mullet and can't have video games. Why are they (minus dad) living like it's '86 again?
> Earlier this year, Blair says, he was hanging out outside the house, and he asked his 5-year-old son Trey to join him. Trey refused. He was too busy with his iPad.
Oh, that explains it.
Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#19> And he's had trouble getting more work, as well, because so many workplaces now only accept job applications online. There is an intelligent limiting of technology for a purpose, and there is brainless dogma. They started with the first, and ended with the second.
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Re: Meet the Family That Shuns Technologies Introduced After 1986
#20I'm reminded of those 60's futuristic reels of what the 80's would be like.
Slight tangent:
"The 1950's was the last time in our history people had any taste in clothing" - Patton Oswalt.
In an ideal world, we'll all dress in 50's - early 60's fashion. Computers won't look, sound or even interact with us like computers I.E. they should be invisible and only have their presence known when we have a guest at the door or an appointment. For this, they should remind us with the soothing voice of HAL9000.
Facebook shouldn't exist and news came in the daily papers made of e-ink. My chair would still be made of wood. In fact, "Things" would mostly be made of wood (new-growth renewable) and maybe a bit of steel for extra support. Concrete would also look like timbers.
At the start of the day, HAL will wake you out of your bed in your 16" x 20" rustic cabin in the middle of a forest and start the coffee machine with a carefully measured Arabica with a water temp at exactly 109C all powered by solar + wind. You put on your bedroom slippers made of recycled materials and head to pick up the paper (same one as yesterday, but now with today's news) and it will actually contain bloody NEWS, not some random malarkey dipped in mediocrity. You sip your coffee with your e-ink paper as you watch snow fall outside (it's September, but the windows will perfectly display the outside in winter, because.... well, just because).
... OK, I'm done.
Edit: I initially wrote August. Forgot, it's already September.