part of it is down to exposure as well, if you grow up in a place where you can’t just buy the latest iphone every year it’s a lot more likely that you’ll end up fiddling around with stuff and learn how it works.
like india has a lot of this, people can’t afford a new device but it’s not that difficult to get some “e-waste” which is still perfectly functional (if slow), so kids are way more likely to end up fiddling around and learning.
I had restrictive parents who wanted to investigate and limit every part of my digital life, so most of my motivation came from getting the most out of the devices I could access. Usually that involved manipulating software to break parental digital locks, or to install more featured homebrew to access websites (and emulators).
Financially, my folks could have gotten me what I wanted out of my tech, but tried to hold me back because of their personal views. That was what drove me to get creative and understand more about all my devices.
If were to have kids my plan is to start by locking down my kid’s devices in increasingly stronger ways as they learn new workarounds. Just for this reason.
That doesnt work with all kids, my nephew gives up instantly when theres a technical barrier as simple as picking the correct video cable out of a pile of cables and just accepts that its beyond his ability.
Can I ask how old he is? I was doing that when I was like 5 or 6. But I was born in the '80s so I had a parent that could teach me and let me figure out the rest as it came. Also helped we had color-coded RCA jacks and I could reach magazines and manuals by the time s-video was common enough.
14 or 15. He has really bad ADHD, even his distractions get cut off by other distractions until he is overwhelmed and then just incapable of the effort of figuring out why the DP he is trying to plug into an HDMI slot is “too small”.
Ah. Well, we had those types too back in the day. Hopefully he gets the help he needs. If not then there’s still a chance his motivation will overcome his diagnosis, but I’m not a childhood ADHD expert. I only work with adults for their meds and such.
part of it is down to exposure as well, if you grow up in a place where you can’t just buy the latest iphone every year it’s a lot more likely that you’ll end up fiddling around with stuff and learn how it works.
like india has a lot of this, people can’t afford a new device but it’s not that difficult to get some “e-waste” which is still perfectly functional (if slow), so kids are way more likely to end up fiddling around and learning.
I had restrictive parents who wanted to investigate and limit every part of my digital life, so most of my motivation came from getting the most out of the devices I could access. Usually that involved manipulating software to break parental digital locks, or to install more featured homebrew to access websites (and emulators).
Financially, my folks could have gotten me what I wanted out of my tech, but tried to hold me back because of their personal views. That was what drove me to get creative and understand more about all my devices.
If were to have kids my plan is to start by locking down my kid’s devices in increasingly stronger ways as they learn new workarounds. Just for this reason.
That doesnt work with all kids, my nephew gives up instantly when theres a technical barrier as simple as picking the correct video cable out of a pile of cables and just accepts that its beyond his ability.
Can I ask how old he is? I was doing that when I was like 5 or 6. But I was born in the '80s so I had a parent that could teach me and let me figure out the rest as it came. Also helped we had color-coded RCA jacks and I could reach magazines and manuals by the time s-video was common enough.
14 or 15. He has really bad ADHD, even his distractions get cut off by other distractions until he is overwhelmed and then just incapable of the effort of figuring out why the DP he is trying to plug into an HDMI slot is “too small”.
Ah. Well, we had those types too back in the day. Hopefully he gets the help he needs. If not then there’s still a chance his motivation will overcome his diagnosis, but I’m not a childhood ADHD expert. I only work with adults for their meds and such.
It’s a dangerous bet - there were times where I was at the “despair resulting from failed desperation” point.