The Merits of Reading Real Books to Your Children

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

IF you know how it works. 81-y/o grandma would rather wait until the next day, phone / go to the local bookstore to see if there's a book she'd want, and the go have it ordered or pick it up.

Depends on the 81 year old grandma. My mother is a 70-something year old grandma who uses her Kindle with no problem...she buys books directly from it. If you asked her to use a computer, she'd be lost, but she's really good at buying books on her Kindle.

If your argument is that some people want to keep doing things the way they've always done them, then yes, of course that's true.

What's *not* true is that the rest of us have to sit and watch them stagnate.

Shari

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by shalym

Depends on the 81 year old grandma. My mother is a 70-something year old grandma who uses her Kindle with no problem...she buys books directly from it. If you asked her to use a computer, she'd be lost, but she's really good at buying books on her Kindle.

If your argument is that some people want to keep doing things the way they've always done them, then yes, of course that's true.

What's *not* true is that the rest of us have to sit and watch them stagnate.

Shari

This.
I know 75 year olds that like ereaders and I know 25 year olds that prefer books.
So it all depends on the person.

Oh and in the old days, you recorded your music off the radio onto 8-tracks and later cassettes. You always hoped the DJ didn't talk over the first of the song.

[theducks]

I get Skype calls from my 90 YO Aunt. Not one (or e-mail) from any of my Cousins . ( I don't know who set up her rig, just that she uses it all the time)

My wife has a Embroidery Machine that is more complex (just way smaller) than any of my old Navy Radar systems . I can make/use it do basic stitches

I kept all the old Mechanical ones running for years. Not these. Automatic Tension BAH!

Neither of us will see 70...Again

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

How would you listen to music in 'the old days' (before 2000)?

Go to a shop. Pick up an LP/CD, pay for it and go home.
Put the album into your player. Press "Play" and listen.


Listening to music digitally (or reading books, or watching movies, anything...) has become a LOT more complex to understand for people who haven't grown up with using computers from childhood.

Really! (just consumer)
Phono records: (before 2000)

Mono, Stereo (You could not play Stereo Discs on olderplayers equipped with Mono cartridges, the disk would be damaged because the needle would not move in the Stereo V
Speed (rounded): 78, 33, 45, 16 <<used for audio books
QUAD decoder: SQ, QS, CD4

Tape:

Vehicle:

Muntz, 8-track, compact cassette

Home:

(1/4") Mono, Stereo half track, Stereo Quarter Track, Quad 4-track
8-Track
Cassette

Portable :

3-5" Open Reel
Cassette

Video: NTSC, PAL, Secam (for other than film)

Film 16mm, 8mm, super8
Tape: VHS, Beta, HiFi VHS, 8mm (?consumer releases?)
Disc: Laser, RCA (CED), DVD

And if you Traveled out of country, you needed to worry if your equipment handled 50 or 60 Hz (pulley/shaft kits) and a wide range of voltages (same plugs as today)

Simpler... No Way

[Cinisajoy]

We all forgot the old reel to reels.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

We all forgot the old reel to reels.

(1/4) I still have All, except 1/2 track
I did forget to list speeds: 1-7/8, 3-3/4, 7-1/2, 15
I can play all except the slowest IN QUAD

[BelleZora]

My 25-year-old niece, who has Angelman Syndrome and is not verbal, has never shown any interest in print books beyond throwing them. She was given a sturdy children's Kindle Fire for Christmas last year, and we are astounded at the way she relates to it. Despite poor motor control, she quickly learned how to find and play movies. She can turn the pages of ebooks by swiping, and she studies the pictures. She has never shown the slightest interest in turning the pages of a print book, probably because it is difficult for her. She won't allow anyone else to touch her tablet, nor does she need anyone's help. She finds and listens to her own music and will even listen to an audible book for short periods if the reader is animated.

That Kindle Fire has opened the world to her as no print book ever could. She sleeps with it and clutches it throughout the day. Now she has a duplicate tablet since charging it was a nightmare.

This is a bit off topic, but I think it's important to suggest that perhaps young children also may relate to print and tablets in different ways and that both can be important to their development.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

This is a bit off topic, but I think it's important to suggest that perhaps young children also may relate to print and tablets in different ways and that both can be important to their development.

Indeed. Make them both available. Let them develop their own affinity for one or the other (or both).

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Indeed. Make them both available. Let them develop their own affinity for one or the other (or both).

Exactly. Why place limits on the way your child learns? Expose them to all, and they will pick what works best for them.

Shari

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

IF you know how it works. 81-y/o grandma would rather wait until the next day, phone / go to the local bookstore to see if there's a book she'd want, and the go have it ordered or pick it up.

How many "grandmas" do you know? All of my parents and parents-in-law use ereaders, and they're doing just fine thankyouverymuch.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by meeera

How many "grandmas" do you know? All of my parents and parents-in-law use ereaders, and they're doing just fine thankyouverymuch.

I know several people older than 70. Counting quickly, I know 9, both men and women. Every single one of them freaks out if a device has more than two or three buttons, let alone a touch screen. (Yes, even the TV's remote control is often a problem, and most of them have had those TV's for 8-10 years or so.)

The exception is one man (82 at the moment) who got into computers in the 80's.

Maybe it's different in other places, but over here, in the south of the Netherlands, the one generalization I can safely make is that if (now elderly) people didn't get into technology in the 80's or 90's, at least at the basic level, they're having problems now. Some of them go as far as unable to use an ATM-machine, and they've been around here since 1984 (IIRC).

[Apache]

Maybe the older folks you know are just technology declined.
Apache

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Maybe it's different in other places, but over here, in the south of the Netherlands, the one generalization I can safely make is that if (now elderly) people didn't get into technology in the 80's or 90's, at least at the basic level, they're having problems now.

Maybe it is. There is solid demographic research that ereader adoption skews much older than adoption of pretty much any other electronic tech. Maybe because older people read more, maybe because the font enlargement helps, maybe other factors too.

Most of the smartest techy/geekish people I know are women older than 50. So I'm really sick of "grandma" or "your aunt" or "your mum" being held up as the somehow obvious example of someone who must be ignorant and terrified of technology.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I am trying to explain how I, who thinks a book is a bound collection of leaves by definition, can use the phrase "real book" without making any kind of value judgements on other forms of publications. That is my whole point, that you don't have to be offended when you see the phrase, for no offense is intended.

This is fundamentally a problem with the English language, which uses the word "book" for both the literary work and the container it's presented in.

[Alpha o]

I got read to by my father, the other half and I read to our daughter. I would read to any child, but would probably prefer a sturdy printed book to a device for a toddler. Older child, either one, but unless device really shows pictures and colors ----

Say to them "where is the cat" and they rather exuberantly swat the page. I don't think a beaten on, jellied type of treat smeared all over the screen as a necessity.