Hyperboles aside, tablets are vastly easier and more intuitive for small children to use than keyboards and mice. Undoubtedly, a very different generation is growing up now, for which a "computer" means a screen you can touch, and actual laptops and PCs are something esoteric you sometimes use for schoolwork to input large amounts of text. If there ever was a strong case for "mobile is eating the world", this is it.
tablets are vastly easier and more intuitive for small children
They sure are, and I don't really think there is a minimum age at which newborns and beyond should be allowed access to them. Yet it is of utter importance they also get access to actual non-flat toys/tools/... in order to develop dexterity, the feeling to handle objects and even creativity. Also not to forget about getting enough movement/excercise and not getting used to a sedentary lifestyle: most tablet apps unfortunately don't require the user to move around, on the contrary.
It is one thing to say that a two year old is randomly hitting buttons on your phone until it accidentally makes a call. Its shiny, it lights up, etc. It was another thing completely when at 9 months or so my daughter could consciously open the photos app and then scroll left and right to look through our family photos. Just because they can't talk yet they can still comprehend things and will happily learn sign language (taught her that at 6 months) and can use a touch device to accomplish things.
And as for screen time I have no regrets about letting her play various alphabet games on the ipad* to keep her stationary on the potty during toilet training.
It was weird realizing that she might never buy a keyboard.
*along with books toys and anything that would keep her there
Pretty much everyone gets the "point at it". As opposed to the cognitive skills to dial a phone number, and then push the handset into an acoustic coupler (extreme ends of the computing spectrum).
My kids were all very comfortable with mice at a very young age, not as much typing until they needed to type to get things done. (it always annoyed me that the Reader Rabbit app had the same icon for the uninstall and launch feature though.)
Next up will be better audio processing and then your two or three year old will able to say "Why!" repeatedly to your tablet and get an endless stream of entertainment.
One trend I don't like very much (in my very personal experience[0]), is that over the past few years I've seen a trend with not-quite-so-young children (ages 8-12) having more trouble navigating a basic desktop environment like Windows 7.
For an 8 or 9 year-old, that is fine. And navigating a file/folder system can be quite an adventure. But some of the older ones (10-12) lately are having trouble with finding the proper X (close) button when there's multiple windows (and sub-windows) on the screen. Or what minimizing does (the window is gone but it's not really gone? how will you figure out the restore button?). Definitely a tricky one is what the taskbar is for (most tablets / phones don't have that).
They do love it when I teach them "special tricks" like copy-paste with shortcuts, moving by word with ctrl-arrow. What NumLock does. And for some reason they all know "backspace", but do not discover the "delete" key. One kid, upon explaining it's like backspace but deletes the other way: "oh my god, this is so cool I'm going to use this EVERYWHERE!!!" (and I smiled and thought, yes, DELETE ALL THE THIGNS)
:-)
[0] I teach children at a volunteer's centre to do interesting/creative/technical/cool stuff with computers--anything that gets them enthusiastic that isn't YouTube or Minecraft--yes yes Minecraft is a very creative environment in a sense, but it's quite easy for them to revert to "consuming" all day long instead of "building/crafting". However I'm also aware that this is my own lack of knowledge, meaning I can't properly stimulate them to take on creative challenges. Plus they can't play (properly) without their own paid account (right?), making it a bit unfair towards kids whose parents can't or won't buy them an account (the volunteer centre itself aims to be almost-absurdly cheap, €20/year, attracting children from all strata of society).
Sorry for killing the hype, but I hope this is not going to read in a few years as «6-Month-Old Babies are now using the TV», a clear example of parents negligence, with study upon study showing the negative effects of such practice.
We used to hire 25-30 year olds in my shop, but we're finding health care premiums are much more affordable for toddlers.
Also by the time people reach 25 or so it gets harder to find individuals who are accomplishing new personal bests at the rate of two and three year olds. Most people have more or less plateaued by ten or eleven.
You are guaranteed a very well paying job for a really long time.
That may certainly be the case, but the conclusion doesn't follow from your anecdotal premise. Otherwise auto mechanic would be a prestigious and very well paying job, as well. Now you might respond that modern vehicles have ever more complex computer technology and mechanics' requirements are changing in that direction. That much is true, but it mostly involves employing and inspecting black boxes. If anything, it should be a cautionary tale for vendor lockdown.
Former mechanic here. The field works like a lot of other fields where you have your general mechanics struggling to make ends meet. Then you have your dealership specialized mechanics who can often net in the six figures. This happened before vendor lockdown but that will certainly exacerbate the problem.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 47.0 ms ] threadThey sure are, and I don't really think there is a minimum age at which newborns and beyond should be allowed access to them. Yet it is of utter importance they also get access to actual non-flat toys/tools/... in order to develop dexterity, the feeling to handle objects and even creativity. Also not to forget about getting enough movement/excercise and not getting used to a sedentary lifestyle: most tablet apps unfortunately don't require the user to move around, on the contrary.
And as for screen time I have no regrets about letting her play various alphabet games on the ipad* to keep her stationary on the potty during toilet training.
It was weird realizing that she might never buy a keyboard.
*along with books toys and anything that would keep her there
My kids were all very comfortable with mice at a very young age, not as much typing until they needed to type to get things done. (it always annoyed me that the Reader Rabbit app had the same icon for the uninstall and launch feature though.)
Next up will be better audio processing and then your two or three year old will able to say "Why!" repeatedly to your tablet and get an endless stream of entertainment.
For an 8 or 9 year-old, that is fine. And navigating a file/folder system can be quite an adventure. But some of the older ones (10-12) lately are having trouble with finding the proper X (close) button when there's multiple windows (and sub-windows) on the screen. Or what minimizing does (the window is gone but it's not really gone? how will you figure out the restore button?). Definitely a tricky one is what the taskbar is for (most tablets / phones don't have that).
They do love it when I teach them "special tricks" like copy-paste with shortcuts, moving by word with ctrl-arrow. What NumLock does. And for some reason they all know "backspace", but do not discover the "delete" key. One kid, upon explaining it's like backspace but deletes the other way: "oh my god, this is so cool I'm going to use this EVERYWHERE!!!" (and I smiled and thought, yes, DELETE ALL THE THIGNS)
:-)
[0] I teach children at a volunteer's centre to do interesting/creative/technical/cool stuff with computers--anything that gets them enthusiastic that isn't YouTube or Minecraft--yes yes Minecraft is a very creative environment in a sense, but it's quite easy for them to revert to "consuming" all day long instead of "building/crafting". However I'm also aware that this is my own lack of knowledge, meaning I can't properly stimulate them to take on creative challenges. Plus they can't play (properly) without their own paid account (right?), making it a bit unfair towards kids whose parents can't or won't buy them an account (the volunteer centre itself aims to be almost-absurdly cheap, €20/year, attracting children from all strata of society).
Also by the time people reach 25 or so it gets harder to find individuals who are accomplishing new personal bests at the rate of two and three year olds. Most people have more or less plateaued by ten or eleven.
She asked me what I was studying.
I replied "Computer Science".
she said "Oh! My daughter uses the tablet all the time ! She could study Computers too !"
I have read about ppl like her on the internet, but it was so interesting to have that experience.
Bottom line for programmers :
You are guaranteed a very well paying job for a really long time.
You are guaranteed a very well paying job for a really long time.
That may certainly be the case, but the conclusion doesn't follow from your anecdotal premise. Otherwise auto mechanic would be a prestigious and very well paying job, as well. Now you might respond that modern vehicles have ever more complex computer technology and mechanics' requirements are changing in that direction. That much is true, but it mostly involves employing and inspecting black boxes. If anything, it should be a cautionary tale for vendor lockdown.