Kids Today & Tech

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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10,252
It's a little unfair to ask kids to do things they've never been shown. So show them.

Rubbish, i was taking stuff apart as soon as i could hold a screwdriver and got better at putting back together eventually:)

The OP is correct kids today are useless unless its button press.
 

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
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The OP is correct kids today are useless unless its button press.

Is true. I was talking about this with a workmate just yesterday. Kids are too easy to get offended and they know if they don't have to do something they won't. Also lack of physical/practical abilities at things like those being discussed in this thread.

In general if a kid has zero interest in these things then no matter how hard you try to get them interested it just isn't going to happen. And if you try too much you will distance them even further and they will protest against that even more. You simply cannot win. As the eldest sibling of 4, I grew up taking things apart and fixing things, yet none of my siblings had any interest in any of that at all. My brothers were next to useless at anything physical unless it involved having a short temper (!).

Certain things are genetic, whilst others are programmed as part of that persons self being. If it wasn't meant to be, it will never be. Whilst sometimes it is down to poor parenting and poor positive reinforcement at an early age, most of the time it's a generational thing and it's pretty obvious these days it's the latter given how many youths are like this yet their parents are perfectly fine and grew up fine too.
 
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Associate
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Hampshire
About 3 years ago, I gave my nephew a PC hand me down, whilst it couldn't play AAA games it could still run decent games.

The idea was, rather naively on my part, so he could use it for homework (I know) and learn about tech in general. Said nephew had a Nintendo at this point. Well, the results were worse than I envisaged, zero interest in any programs (for instance, drawing, music or other creative hobbies which PC's can provide) the only interest was how to fire up Steam. If a game froze, lagged, nephew would be clueless. To this day the PC is mothballed, PS4 took over as this is where his school mates play.

I get this but to not even bother using the PC for something useful - well, lesson learned.
 
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Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2006
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Not here
Location? I went to school in both Stoke and the south coast and was taught woodwork, metal fabrication and electronics right down to PCB design and soldering components to make basic gadgets like alarm clocks and things. That was alongside the usual core subjects.

All in the late 90s and early 2000s...

Birmingham, did none of that in my school.

On a side note, I made loads of money from chipping PlayStations back then :D
 
Soldato
OP
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11 Sep 2009
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France, Alsace
Yes, we did that too. Forgot to add it to the list.
When I was 17 in school I made a badboy bonnet for my citreon AX at school lol

But since I was like 10 I was doing woodwork, cooking, sewing, metal work and electronics. I remember the standard plant/water device that measured if you needed to water the plant. I must have been 10/11 when we made that.
 
Soldato
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Forgot sewing/needlework too, but that's probably because my brain had repressed those memories for my own sanity. I knitted a little gown for a neighbour's baby, was well chuffed with it - right up until I noticed it had three arms.
 
Associate
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Sherwood Forest
I stole magnesium and zinc and other stuff from the chemistry lab and made a pipebomb with that and batteries and caps. Blew the bin lid off but only half the thing blew initially, and it keep banging for a while after.

More fun than technology class where you made a car out of wood and stuck a battery to it
 
Associate
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Love these threads, every generation is the same.

I don't know about you guys but I didn't become a parent to play top trumps with my child's skill set.
 
Caporegime
Joined
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Norrbotten, Sweden.
Honestly what a load of twaddle.

We as kids took stuff apart because we had stuff you could take apart. VHS recorders, tape decks, anything with a screw hole was in danger when we were kids.

Now everything is flat screens and apps. There's no opportunity like we had. That's the reason why. If no one teaches or shows it won't happen.

Pc building isn't a big deal, no matter what we tell ourselves. It's expensive Lego :p
 
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