Re: [PBS] What Teens Want

From: Eirikur Hallgrimsson (eh@mad.scientist.com)
Date: Thu Mar 01 2001 - 11:52:47 PST


My nephews (17 and 20) have to have TV on at all times, preferably WWF.
I figure that this does produce a certain amount of socially valuable
realtime IQ-reduction, but I'm unsure of the longer-term effects. Loss of
either TV or AIM connectiviy (both is unimaginable) produces severe
frustration and dejection. These are the primary weapons of their natural
enemy, my sister. Visiting with them is a bit like a visiting any unusual
tribe, it's interesting, and we do have some things in common, but there are
a lot of disconnects.

Both of them seem completely without any value for order. Clothing, CDs,
cables, computer parts, old pizza leftovers, etc, live in huge heaps which
most be traversed when a non-surface object is needed.

They are extreme Napster users, filling up any hard drive space, and burning
CD-ROMs to free up space.

It's seems odd to me, but they aren't interested in Linux at all, even if
it's on a faster computer located beside their Mac, but they are very
interested in pirating the latest Mac software.

I've done something wrong here. I gave them their Macs, but somehow didn't
pass along the spirit of the hacker world I come from. I'd worry about that
more if I didn't know about the research that shows that kids are largely
socialized by their peers.

Eirikur



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:13:13 PDT