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Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

blog.smartere.dk

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Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#141

Post by mock-possum »

bananaowl wrote: post #6
tete wrote: post #3

> Modern TVs are very poorly suited for kids. They require using complicated remotes or mobile phones, and navigating apps that continually try to lure you into watching something else than you intended to. I'd argue that's not too different for grown-ups. ;)

I witnessed my great aunt of 85 trying to watch TV. It was sad and painful. How ux is forgetting this entire generation is just terrible.

It’s also true vice versa - an entire generation tends to forget UX. That is to say, most people don’t want to keep learning new things, they don’t want to continue to engage with novel technology they are unfamiliar with, they “just want it to work” because “the old thing was working just fine.” They claim not to see the value in the new thing, while falling farther and farther behind the curve as they fixate on the old thing.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#142

Post by llimllib »

al_borland wrote: post #132
brk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like you have an overly shitty ‘smart’ TV. Plenty of external devices (I’m partial to AppleTV) have no significant lag. Or it could be you’re using some niche service that has its own issues.

I’m using an AppleTV HD with Peacock and it’s pretty bad. I wouldn’t consider NBC a niche service. After an episode ends, I need to wait for the new one to start to be sure it marks the last one as watched. When going back to the main screen, it can take upwards of 30 seconds, maybe more (it feels like an eternity), for the “watch next” to update. If I don’t wait for it to update, it will start playing an old episode…

Yes I think the device itself is fine, but the Apple TV apps are mostly terrible and often very laggy/poorly written.

The way developers use the UI toolkit that the Apple TV provides also seems to tend towards apps where it's very difficult to figure out what's the active selection, which is of course _the_ critical challenge.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#143

Post by SamBam »

gwbas1c wrote: post #80
tantalor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest gripe is how terribly slow it is to navigate UI on a TV. The latency between user input and the UI responding can be upwards of 10-20 seconds. Just incredibly user hostile.

When Netflix released an awful update that had that problem, I called and threatened to cancel.

And they immediately fixed the lag?

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#144

Post by al_borland »

haritha-j wrote: post #102
tantalor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest gripe is how terribly slow it is to navigate UI on a TV. The latency between user input and the UI responding can be upwards of 10-20 seconds. Just incredibly user hostile.

Honestly we don't need TVs, just big monitors. I can figure out the rest, thank you.

The monitor I use for work is 43” and can double as a TV. It also has 4 HDMI inputs, which can act as 4 displays. I could, in theory, watch TV via a streaming box, play a console, and still have the equivalent of 2 21” monitors going at the same time. I’d love this kind of flexibility on my primary TV in the living room.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#146

Post by pessimizer »

loandbehold wrote: post #87
stavros wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell? What's the thing that made you say "this is bad for her", and why is it not the same for you?

There was a time people used think the same about books.

I don't think there was. But even if so, there was a time people used to think the same about drinking antifreeze, too.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#147

Post by mock-possum »

asielen wrote: post #116
stavros wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell? What's the thing that made you say "this is bad for her", and why is it not the same for you?

I won't argue that it is a universal truth but it has played out the same for my kids and my friends groups kids. They treat it like a drug and lose all emotional regulation. I don't believe all screen time is bad, but it is something you have to teach them to regulate and 3 year olds and younger are just bad at regulating emotion in general. Teaching them to do this is just part of parenting. One of the most importa…

Hard disagree with ‘great to be bored’ - being bored is one of the worst possible feelings, that you’re wasting your time doing nothing when there is almost certainly something you would rather be doing.

As a child I used to hate the feeling of boredom, knowing that I could be doing something I wanted to do. As an adult I am hardly ever bored, and it’s a strict improvement, never have I ever found myself wishing I could just go back to being bored.

Boredom is such a negative emotion that learning to manage it effectively becomes an essential life skill. Learning to set yourself up for success / be prepared required forethought to anticipate the possibility of boredom and come prepared to deal with it. Acting out on boredom is childish, learning to keep yourself occupied so you don’t become bored is mature.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#148

Post by cheschire »

nar001 wrote: post #101
cheschire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my grandmother was in her late 70's, she couldn't figure out the concept of menus on DVDs, so she stuck with VHS well beyond the point others had let it go. The capabilities of individuals over 70 are hugely varied. Some folks are clear-minded until 100, others start to lose their mental faculties much, much earlier. I don't think the generation is forgotten, just so vastly different in needs from the core audie…

I do wonder how much of that is just convenience, a lot of people just don't want to bother, even if they would figure it out if they tried - they just don't. Your grandmother probably could've figured it out, but tapes were just much more convenient even if you had to rewind them (Obviously there's a learning curve, though)

I'm sure you didn't intend to be arrogant and dismissive of my efforts to try to keep her current as time went on.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#149

Post by greenavocado »

nar001 wrote: post #101
cheschire wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my grandmother was in her late 70's, she couldn't figure out the concept of menus on DVDs, so she stuck with VHS well beyond the point others had let it go. The capabilities of individuals over 70 are hugely varied. Some folks are clear-minded until 100, others start to lose their mental faculties much, much earlier. I don't think the generation is forgotten, just so vastly different in needs from the core audie…

I do wonder how much of that is just convenience, a lot of people just don't want to bother, even if they would figure it out if they tried - they just don't. Your grandmother probably could've figured it out, but tapes were just much more convenient even if you had to rewind them (Obviously there's a learning curve, though)

I clearly remember my grandfather telling me how much it physically hurt to learn a few years before his death. He was highly motivated and figured out a lot on his Android tablet but could only really try to learn for a few minutes every few hours.

Re: Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids

#150

Post by embedding-shape »

eigencoder wrote: post #113
embedding-shape wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like fun and educational toy, interesting find. But why the mention of it being popular in homeschooling circles? Mentioning that in the same context makes it seem like you're not recommending the product because of that :P

I didn't read that connotation into it, but maybe in your social circles people have a problem with homeschooling?

> maybe in your social circles people have a problem with homeschooling

In general I think it's a very American thing, and considering the education problem the US suffers from, probably explains a part of that. Most other countries have very limited amount of homeschooling even allowed, because of all the drawbacks with it.

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