Comments on: Driven to Distraction http://diyubook.com/2010/11/driven-to-distraction/ Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the coming transformation of higher education Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:44:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Emily B. http://diyubook.com/2010/11/driven-to-distraction/comment-page-1/#comment-3154 Emily B. Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:21:09 +0000 http://diyubook.com/?p=349#comment-3154 This was my exact question about that story. I do believe the extent to which kids are dependent on technology these days is worrisome. I do believe that this dependence probably has negative consequences for attention to the real world and face to face relationships. But I couldn't quite believe that Vishal is representative of that problem. He's not using computers as a distraction, but to do something real. His school is the distraction from what he needs to be doing. He's not dithering away his days on facebook (like I was guilty of yesterday); he's making movies. If I were the parent of a kid like that, I'd withdraw him from school in exchange for some kind of agreement that he'd spend more time offline and more time reading...say, he can spend his days making movies and quit worrying about Algebra II, but he has to stop and go out for a walk at least once a day, he has to cook and eat dinner with the family, he has to read a book once in while. This was my exact question about that story. I do believe the extent to which kids are dependent on technology these days is worrisome. I do believe that this dependence probably has negative consequences for attention to the real world and face to face relationships.

But I couldn’t quite believe that Vishal is representative of that problem. He’s not using computers as a distraction, but to do something real. His school is the distraction from what he needs to be doing. He’s not dithering away his days on facebook (like I was guilty of yesterday); he’s making movies.

If I were the parent of a kid like that, I’d withdraw him from school in exchange for some kind of agreement that he’d spend more time offline and more time reading…say, he can spend his days making movies and quit worrying about Algebra II, but he has to stop and go out for a walk at least once a day, he has to cook and eat dinner with the family, he has to read a book once in while.

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