Kids Spoilt by Technology

[BEDROCK]

I was born in 1980 and did grow up with the birth of home technology, meaning an array of home technology devices.

 

These were often massive and ugly items and it was a pain to get things to even work, look at the tape games computers.

 

I was relieved when the 1990's came and all these things starting coming together in more functional and desirable products.

 

I often wonder nowadays whether kids are spoilt, even those born 15 years ago have still grown up with gadgets and solutions.

 

I wonder how kids nowadays would cope in the early days when there was no mobiles, no consoles and not even a TV in their bedroom, most houses only had one, my parent's had a large cream black & white TV and that lasted ages, then when colour came along we still only managed to afford a small mono set.

 

I did have a few early Commodore and Atari machines but getting them to work was like pulling teeth, those tape machines took years to load, ah the memories of staring at a flashing screen waiting for the game to load, then most times an error popped up, I could shoot myself

 

I also remember VHS players, thinking how revolutionary it was to watch a film at home and be able to fast forward/rewind things, thinking it was like watching Benny Hill and humming the theme tune

 

My mum never had a land line so we had to use the pay phones most the time and have happy yet annoying memories of my parent's 50p meters going and we had to knock on doors to get change to turn the electric back on, no token pay cards back then.

 

Then when mobile phones were invented, thinking we were American business men from Wall Street.

 

Then when the 16 bit consoles came out, thinking it was amazing that games could begin instantly without waiting years to load in, and the same with 32 bit consoles, thinking how futuristic it was to use CD's to play games.

 

When DVD players come out, loving going in Comet and sitting down to a surround sound demonstration and it blowing my mind.

 

I could go on and on, so what are your views?

[Happ Hazzard]

I remember having computers like BBC micro and Spectrum with tape recorders where it was so fragile that you almost had to hold your breath while games were loading as any disturbance like a cough would cause an error and you'd have to rewind the tape and start again. Certainly knocking the computer or tape player would cause it to crash. And it got worse when later games had more levels that required more loading as you got further into the game. Even disc based computers like the Amiga could take eons to load some games, some games had as many as 13 discs and you'd have to constantly swap between them.

[Rampent]

We played on't fields and better for it.

[simonj]

I'm 20 years older than the OP. i-Tunes was known as Dial-A-Disc back then

[psynuk]

snip snip

 

I wonder how kids nowadays would cope in the early days when there was no mobiles, no console....

snip sni p

 

They'd cope exactly like we did, the same as we'd cope now exactly like they do.

[Bethsmummy]

I was born 81. We had an Amstrad computer. Took about 15 minutes for a game to load. Oh and the graphics. Laughing as I think about it. And putting vinyls on at Christmas. My brother's told me the devil spoke to you if you played the vinyls backwards. I was terrified of them. 4 TV channels but much better veiwing than we have on hundreds of channels now. Oh & getting up to press a button on the TV to turn over.

We had a small black & white in the bedroom. I remember jamming uncoiled wire coathangers into the back of it to get a better picture. I wish I could go back for just one day.

 

I type this as my 10 year old swipes away at her IPad. :hihi:

[Boothybabe]

I was born 81. We had an Amstrad computer. Took about 15 minutes for a game to load. Oh and the graphics. Laughing as I think about it. And putting vinyls on at Christmas. My brother's told me the devil spoke to you if you played the vinyls backwards. I was terrified of them. 4 TV channels but much better veiwing than we have on hundreds of channels now. Oh & getting up to press a button on the TV to turn over.

We had a small black & white in the bedroom. I remember jamming uncoiled wire coathangers into the back of it to get a better picture. I wish I could go back for just one day.

 

I type this as my 10 year old swipes away at her IPad. :hihi:

 

I bet your mother ached after that

[WallBuilder]

I was talking to a kid about how i used to build go-karts with a few old pram wheels and bits of wood, he looked at me as though I was an alien before saying that he was getting a new bike for christmas a mere £150 and yet the bike he was perched on although looking rather sorry for itself was still perfectly usable.

Our first video recorder had a remote control that was connectedd to the recorder by a six foot cable so you had to be sat fairly close to the TV to use the remote.

[Mr Bloom]

We played on't fields and better for it.

 

Yes, I can't help feeling that our kids are missing out in terms of the outdoors and even socialisation. Now they tweet instead of phoning and they used to phone instead of meeting....it's great for convenience but our health and social skills are going downhill in lots of ways. When they DO go somewhere, they're on the phone texting and not really in the present!

[Minimo]

Playstations and such like do keep kids indoors, but there are other reasons.

 

Fear of strangers, increased traffic, no interesting adventure playgrounds (natural not man made) laws about not playing ball games etc.

 

When we were kids, we were given a bottle of water, bread and dripping sarnies, and took ourselves off to Millhouses or Endcliffe Park. One rule only, be back before dark. We simply made up our own games and had great fun. Kids today, for all their 'toys', don't have half the fun we had. I feel very sorry for them.