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Subject: 
Re: What a downer :-(
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.technic
Date: 
Sat, 4 Jan 2003 17:08:26 GMT
Viewed: 
195 times
  
In lugnet.general, Ronald Vallenduuk writes:

"Bob Gomez" <kukumba@aol.com> wrote in message news:H83wI4.56M@lugnet.com...
<snip> I guess some will say that the market has changed and kids today
don't have
the attention span that they used to. </snip>

I'm getting a bit tired of hearing this over and over again. Anybody wonder
why kids have such short attention spans? I think it's because everything is
prefab, readymade, spoonfed to them. Here's a few examples:
- Children's TV. When I was young childrens TV was on wednesday afternoons
and saturdays. That's it. Now when my daughter wants to see a cartoon she
can flick on the telly any time of the week and choose from 30 channels. And
then there's the programs themselves. Nothing lasts for more than a few
minutes, and is interrupted for commercials.

The 24 hour cartoon channels are great!  They keep my bird entertained while
I'm at work (he likes Nick the best).

As to children, just don't let them watch all the time (though in truth I'll
sit and watch The Fairly Oddparents or Samurai Jack with my son - there's a
lot of good cartoons out these days, much better than in the past).

- Food. Remember when there wasn't a big M on every corner, and you couldn't
have sweets any time you wanted to?

Considering the state of my teeth and my wife's teeth, and the disgustingly
perfect state of my son's teeth, I think you got that backwards.

- Games. When is the last time you (or your child) has played a board game?
They would last a while. Compare that to Gameboys and the likes. Fast game,
lasts a few minutes, done. Another quick fix.

Last time we played a board game?  Coming up at 11 AM today: Trans-America,
Puerto Rico, Wildlife, Liberte.  There are so many great board games
available today (if you go to game stores and not get the standard issue TRU
trash).  But then, the walk in pantry in our kitchen is wall-to-wall
boardgames, so perhaps mine is not the typical family.

- Books. Remember those? Night after night, hiding your torch under the
covers to find out what would happen to the hero in the end. Compare that to
sticking a DVD in the player and staring for 90 minutes.

That can work both ways.  My son liked the Lord of the Rings movies so much
he is now reading The Hobbit.  But in general, there are more distractions,
so it is up to parents to make sure their children read.

And that also brings me to imagination. I remember when we'd hammer some
sticks together to make guns. Now you just by your prefab AK-47 lookalike
from a shop. Remember when horror movies were scary because of what you
didn't see? Look at the Mummy. I can only laugh at the special effects.
They're now turning my favorite children's books into movies (because like
in music nobody can come up with anything new) and I refuse to go see them.
I'd rather remember what things looked like in my mind.....

Ahhhhh!  No realistic guns!  None.  Cops get a report that someone is
creeping around with a gun and show up hyped up for a shoot-out!

But the kids do love the big bright water soakers.  None of those wimpy
squirt guns!

The current Mummy was more of an adventure flick than horror, and that was
by intent.  Now, Alien was *scary* (first show, big theatre, wonderful
high-backed seats to isolate you, thin crowd, nothing but you, the alien,
and no knowing what was to happen).

But a good comparison would be the original The Haunting where you never
really see anything and it's all implied, and the current version with all
it's high tech special effects.  Watch the first in all its black and white
glory, trash the second.

A lack of Tecnic is not the end of western civilization.  I just got my son
The Big Ball Factory from K*Nex for Christmas.  The darn thing is taller
than him.  He had a great time with it.  But I understand the complaint
about not getting your favorite stuff - if Lego ended Castle and Pirates I'd
be down, too...

...oh wait.  Darn.  Time to turn on B.B. King and Buddy Guy.  I got those
Lego-Lost blues again...

-->Bruce<--





I got those Lego blues again



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: What a downer :-(
 
"Bob Gomez" <kukumba@aol.com> wrote in message news:H83wI4.56M@lugnet.com... <snip> I guess some will say that the market has changed and kids today don't have the attention span that they used to. </snip> I'm getting a bit tired of hearing this (...) (22 years ago, 2-Jan-03, to lugnet.general, lugnet.lego.direct, lugnet.technic)

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