Why Don't We Just Turn Our Children Into Robots?
from the that'll-make-them-easier-to-control dept
While some people have already replaced real dogs with robotic dogs (even if Sony is getting out of the robotic dog business), it seems like some parents are looking to turn their children into robots too, who can easily be controlled at the touch of a button. We’ve already seen too many stories where parents are upset about new technologies because their kids don’t always do what they want — but it seems like some new solutions may be going a bit too far in the other direction. We already told you about the school lunch checkout machines that parents could program to make sure their kids don’t buy any unhealthy food. However, one company is going well beyond that. It’s got a new device that lets a parent define how much time his or her kids can spend watching TV, playing video games or using a computer. This really isn’t all that different than telephone timers that some of my friends had when growing up. It always seemed too rigid, as rather than teaching my friends who had them how to properly manage their time, it just was a huge nuisance for everyone. Instead of setting hard limits, why not work on teaching kids how to judge for themselves what’s appropriate and how to better manage their own time?
Comments on “Why Don't We Just Turn Our Children Into Robots?”
Back to Basics
We need a machine or gadget for every single thing we do these days-now we can’t even remember to take care of our kids???
My parents had no filters or gadgets to make my sis and I do the right thing – they PARENTED.
I’m a parent too. Its hard, but this seems to just be a matter of parents today not having the time or not caring to take the time to actually RAISE their children.
It’s time to get back to the basics with parenthood – spend some time with your kids instead of wasting money on more gadgets to run your life.
Re: Back to Basics
Were you ever a kid? Teaching a kid the value of time and making them decide what programs to fit in the aloted 1-2 hrs a day you give is great, but what about when the kid turns the tv back on when you sleep? Me and all 4 of my siblings did this when we were kids. Also as difficult as it is for some to grasp, some parents actually have enough responsibilities that they can’t keep one one eye on the kids at all times. This doesnt mean they don’t spend enough time with their kids or that the don’t monitor them enough, it just means that little Bobby won’t have Dad sitting with him when he does his homework everyday. That is just lfe in this modern world. These devices do have their place. Even in the households of responsible parents…
Re: Re: Back to Basics
That is just life in this modern world.
BULLSHIT. Your parents had poor priorities. Period.
If they had too many kids than they had time to regulate, that’s a FAILURE, not a happenstance. You may be too PC to call it what it is, but please, don’t pollute the rest of parentdom with such a ridiculous premise.
Re: Back to Basics
It is much harder today. The degree of addictive entertainment makes self judgment and management much more difficult. Limits must be imposed from the outside until children’s judgment is stronger.
That said, doing it via electronic leashes is the wrong way. It sends the message of not wanting to relate to them.
Ummm...
…we’re all already robots.
Re: Ummm...
Silence you fool! Its hard enough to blend in with these fleshbags without you giving us away!
Re: Re: hmmm parenting...
i need to look into patenting this parenting this thing, it could make me millions!
Re: Re: Re: hmmm parenting...
“i need to look into patenting this parenting this thing, it could make me millions!”
Nah, no one ever uses it. It’d be the only patent that’s not being infringed.
And Jake… seriously man. Time to switch to decaf.
And while I hate busting on people’s speech/typing, I can’t let the hypocrisy go. “?have they ever encouraged the choice of making sure you can communicate in English?????? You do know that one question mark will do, right? Just checking.
How dumb...
Any motivated kid would just have their own power cables/adapters handy. Lock up the PC cable or XBOX adapter or whatever all you want… but who cares? Just use another plug that isn’t locked into this box… Then there’s no monitoring or control of usage. Only thing it would probably work on are TVs or something that you can’t readily just pull out the existing power cable and use another…
Re: How dumb...
Here’s a thought – if your kids are so out of control (in which case you should have NEVER reproduced in the first place) then KILL THE GODAMN TV.
Get rid of it. shoot the damned thing. YOu’re the adult man, it’s YOUR HOSE. For the love of god, why do people let themselves become slaves to pop culture????? You have a choice. Exercise it, you’ll feel better.
Re: How dumb...
Which is why bans / rules need enforcing with appropriate punishments. Parents cannot rely solely on technical means to enforce their will.
No Subject Given
warning: i am a 16 year old.
if my parents ever gave up for technology, i would disown them. i love to spend time with them even if it means they kick me off the tv and go for a run with my dad. my parents tried setting limits but in the end they decided i had to learn on my own and i decided it was better to spend time with them than to waste it watching tv. computers is a different story all together. my parents are semi-illiterate with computers. my mom is pretty proficient with macs (i hate them) so she understands that i have an interest in computers and they help me wiht that interest. they know i will spend some of my day online because i am learning about an interst. if my parents ever gave up for a peice of hardware, i would defenitly lose hope in teh world.
Re: No Subject Given
You suffer from a serious case of never having your ass kicked.
Your parents make the decisions FOR YOU. Why??? Because you are a C H I L D. Disown them???? What the hell kind of crack are you smoking? I suspect that your parents are whipped into thinking they have to be your friend instead of your parent.
You picked your own limits? That’s a shame and a failure. It is fortunate that you picked a GOOD path, but let?s face it, most kids would not.
Here’s an issue:
“warning: i am a 16 year old.
if my parents ever gave up for technology, i would disown them. “
“if my parents ever gave up for a peice of hardware, i would defenitly lose hope in teh world.”
This doesn’t even make sense. In all the understanding and compassion that your parent apparently put out in making sure you get to make your own choices, have they ever encouraged the choice of making sure you can communicate in English?????
You should be more concerned about this than concerned about parents who limit the amount of time their children spend online.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
Some people who seem to lack all basic parenting skills see these things as nessary these days. It’s honestly sad and it makes me worry about the state that the next generation will be in when it is ready to take things over.
I mean when comments coming from mothers asking my friend (who works retail) how long a certain game will keep their child busy are common, there’s something definately wrong.
Re: Re: No Subject Given
Prahaps if this version of ‘the modern world’ could still supply a job for life and a living wage, parents would have enough time to properly raise their children.
How many of you (over 35) had both parents working? How many of us now have to have two incomes to survive?
You clearly have no kids?
Parents should know and be able to CONTROL what their kids are doing. You may think it too rigid, but for god’s sake, look at childrin these days???? Flunk outs and losers, the lot of them. Every year, we see stats that rate Japan above the US. WHy?? Because American parents are too concerned with being their child’s FREEEEEIND instead of being thier PARENT. I.E. OVERSEER. As in, FIVE YEAR OLDS are not ature enough to decide what is right. If you let them, THEY WILL BECOME SPOILED ADULTS WHO THINK THAT PERSONAL GRATIFICATION IS THE BE ALL AND END ALL.
This is very basic logic. Either you don’t get it, or you’re too damn liberal to care.
CONTROLING KIDS
God what a sick world we live in….
What happened to teaching kids how to make judgement calls?
What happened to talking with kids however long it takes to get them to understand why we need them to cooperate in certain ways?
What happened to good old freedom?
CONTROLS are for unwilling fed spys who have been turned against their will.
If my parents had tried to treat me that way it would have lasted until I could have figured a way to kill them. NO ONE CONTROLS ME! Never Have.. Never Will..
I’m sure each and everyone of us on this forum who is over 35 skipped school a few times.
We eat bad foods plenty of times, we looked at our dads porno whenever we got a chance… probably stole a playboy or playgirl even…
Jacked off to it in the backyard or car or whereever we had the chance…..
You know what…… other than a gang of people who seem to think they can run our lives better than we can…. generally we all think we turned out ok.
Somehow or another we managed to grow up and create familys of our own. We work, we play, we live our lives…. we accomplished this all without all of this time management and control bullshit that is being preached today.
And guess what… our children will be doing the same after we are dead and gone…… no matter what they will be doing almost the same thing 100 years from now as we are doing today….. just like people were doing a 100 years ago…..
wake up people, your children are not gonna be clones of you. they are not gonna have your values or ideals of the world, and they probably shouldn’t.
change is vital to a civilization, critical even.
ahh to hell with it, i’m tired of being a champion of civil rights. I don’t understand why but almost everyone now thinks more control is a good idea. problem with that is that we have been slowly gaining more control over everything and nothing is getting better.
ever wonder about that? Its really scary that our technlogical understanding has become so out of balance with our spiritual and moral understanding.
Are you scared? If your smart you are…. however your probably scared about the wrong things?
You should be scared that yout government cares less about you than the rest of the world.
You should be scared that ther USA is letting a known terroist-aiding company control major sea ports.
You should be scared that our president has so overstepped his presidental powers that in any other time of our history he would have already been thrown out on his arse.
You should be scared that the majority of amercians think they are justified in telling you how you can and cannot have sex, or if you can and cannot gamble…..
You should be scared that being a patroit in Amercia now is to be considered a potential threat……
Are you scared…….I sure the hell am….. bet were not scared about the same things though…..
Parenting
The Hopscotch device isn’t necessarily a substitute for parenting. (Unless you want it to be, in which case it’s doomed to fail.)
Timers can be as much for parents as for kids, especially when the kid in question is under six. When my son plays his computer games, that gives me some breathing space to do some things around the house. But because I’m hurrying to maximize the amount I can do, it becomes easy to lose track of time. A timer of any kind (I prefer an egg timer) keeps us both honest.
What I don’t like about Bob is that, unlike an egg timer, there’s no leeway. With my son, if his time runs out but he’s doing really well with his spelling game or something, I can let him play longer. That’s not possible with Bob.