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Retro-Tech Parenting

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Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#241

Post by rightbyte »

anthk wrote: post #118
masterj wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protecting your kids from dopamine-drip algorithms and the effects of social media and short-form video during their most formative years and gradually letting them take over as they mature sounds like… parenting.

I've been there, but going to cybercafés instead of having an internet connection at home until very late. A simlar case with a mobile phone, having to use the one from my dad until I had 18. I nearly ended up alone, as anynone would expected. Parents understood too late the value of sharing common culture points, up to the point to apologyze and feeling really desperate on the consecuences. Cracking up wifi and such…

How old are you? The internets were way more nice when we were kids. Not in the no 4chan edgelord way but the not toxic algorithmic way.

There is no way feeding YT etc. to kids is at any way good for them, their parents, humanity and so on.

edit: And yes, I agree with you.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#242

Post by rightbyte »

anthk wrote: post #213
masterj wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry this happened to you. However nothing in my reply implies cutting your children off from the world. Helping them avoid the harms of algorithmic feeds until they have developed the maturity to navigate them helps them be more connected to the world, not less. With all due respect I think you are reading more there due to your own experiences, which sound like abuse, not parenting.

Indeed. But in the skills case, ahem, formally, in paper. When I did a finished and advanced trade (pre-University IT, syadmin role), I aced the results as I had plenty of time to even make small patches to BTTV to support my $ELCHEAPO Conceptronic TV card. Having no internet at home made me really 'roguery' on how to achieve stuff, from cracking cable TV to inspect DVB packets, hack cable modems and pirate wifi. No…

Yeah I feel you. I didn't experience it as extreme as you, but it really sets its marks.

When I go to a store with my kids nowadays I let them spend 10% of what I buy. I whine a bit about buying too crappy plastic toys but that is it.

If they want some silly fruit or bouncy ball they get it.

I hope I don't overcompensate...

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#243

Post by scottishbee »

sghiassy wrote: post #52

In 30 years, won’t today’s tech be retro tech Did the parents of 30 years ago, think the tech you’re giving today had gone too far?

Yes. There was a massive hand-wringing about cable TV for instance. And cordless phones (much less car phones!).

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#244

Post by contingencies »

perilunar wrote: post #202
contingencies wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know some people who have kept their kids from having phones into high school. In Australia this is normal. The distribution of phones increases slowly during high school, not before. Kids don't really use phones anyway, they use some combination of online games and messaging apps so they can do it from a computer or tablet without a phone.

> Kids don't really use phones anyway My kids used the home phone for many years before they got their own cell phones. They would call their friends and grandparents. (The grandparents loved it)

That's great but nobody has a 'home phone' anymore.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#245

Post by password4321 »

postscape wrote: post #240
password4321 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids trash discs, but you can give them copies (with menus removed if desired)

Why the downvote? Yes, so now I am sitting in front of my computer burning discs instead of letting them grab a VHS and sliding it in - clicking the triangle button...

I think VHS is fun, definitely sturdier than discs

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#246

Post by ahazred8ta »

picofarad wrote: post #229
jon-wood wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad I'm not the only person with this approach. We have a 12 year old son and we've never really gone overboard with restricting what he's permitted to do with his free time, if he wants to watch crap on YouTube then fine its his time. What we will do is talk to him about what he's doing, maybe sometimes ask why he's doing it ("hey, you appear to have watched the first 30 seconds of 5 videos in a row, have you c…

What you describe as how I raised my two oldest kids and how I'm raising my youngest who is now 10. The two older ones are productive members of society who have never done a mean thing to anyone in their life. The only thing I did differently is I completely banned Disney and I didn't really have a TV in the house. A communal display that sometimes had tv shows on it, but my houses have not had televisions since mis…

Our neighbors put a tv in their little girl's room, but it was rigged to only show the local PBS station. Worked out well.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#247

Post by ericd »

skydhash wrote: post #184
ericd wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, with video games, we started with SNES and have been slowly moving higher fidelity. We've got a VOIP landline for the kids, as well as a CD player. It's been working pretty well. For computing, they have a desktop Raspberry Pi 400 running Raspbian, terminal-centric setup.

I wouldn’t trade the hours I spent with a group of friends in front of a n64, and a handful of multiplayer games (shooter, fighting, and racing). It was us 4 to 8 kids for 2 controllers. While I play a handful of PC games and have a console, there’s nothing better than a good living room session.

Yeah for sure, we've been mostly focused on couch co-op as we've started adding a few Steam games to the rotation - Brotato and Castle Crashers are big favorites, along with the more modern Minecraft Dungeons, a really simple couch co-op action RPG. It's been awesome, the neighbor kids drop by whenever, and it's been making some great memories as they pull through by the skin of their teeth.

Also got an Analogue 3D recently, it's been awesome digging out my old n64 collection and showing them the classics, while still having new controllers without stick slop, and HDMI so I don't have to fiddle with a bunch of converters.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#248

Post by anthk »

rightbyte wrote: post #242
anthk wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. But in the skills case, ahem, formally, in paper. When I did a finished and advanced trade (pre-University IT, syadmin role), I aced the results as I had plenty of time to even make small patches to BTTV to support my $ELCHEAPO Conceptronic TV card. Having no internet at home made me really 'roguery' on how to achieve stuff, from cracking cable TV to inspect DVB packets, hack cable modems and pirate wifi. No…

Yeah I feel you. I didn't experience it as extreme as you, but it really sets its marks. When I go to a store with my kids nowadays I let them spend 10% of what I buy. I whine a bit about buying too crappy plastic toys but that is it. If they want some silly fruit or bouncy ball they get it. I hope I don't overcompensate...

Well, you are overcompensating a little. Just let spend their earnings from allowances on anything they want.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#249

Post by collabs »

Kind of tangential but the picture has floppies so... I absolutely hated floppies. I could never tell when one would go bad. I would ride my bicycle to a cyber cafe, send and receive emails and save text files or whatever to my floppy to bring back home to read but sometimes they just randomly failed. No idea why or how. Something about CRC failed. I'll take solid state drives or USB flash drives over floppy disks for daily use any day.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#250

Post by Kirby64 »

ale42 wrote: post #141
jewel wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an alternative to the VoIP phone: Redpocket has a $2.67/mo plan. We loaded that SIM into a small android phone (Unihertz Jelly phone). It works great as a home phone but has the additional advantage of being able to wander if a pre-cellularized needs to go somewhere. For example, my 13-year-old takes it when going on a long bike-ride with his friends. We keep it in our closet and only comes out when needed. They a…

Well, the point of the landline phone (at least to some parents) is also that it has no screen, and has actual buttons, and stays home... for cell phone, we have prepaid SIM cards that are actually usable (in many EU countries credit doesn't expire and you must just use it every few months to keep them active, not sure about US).

Pretty much all phones have screens, even landline ones. They communicate at minimum caller ID, or what phone number you dialed out.

Using an old flip phone (they still make them that have 4g/5g connectivity these days!) gets you a similar ask, with the benefit that it’s portable if you need to.

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