Everything Tagged with 'tinkering'
The Kids Are Alright With iPads
In a piece commenting on the supposedly “closed” nature of Apple’s iPad, John Gruber has (somewhat inadvertently) written a stirring defense in testament to the capacity and ingenuity of children.
The criticism around Apple’s new device centers around it’s “closed, consumption-oriented nature” and what this means for the future of computing – not only for adults, but for children, where they might supposedly no longer allowed to hack, program, and tinker their time away with only an iPad at their disposal. Cory Doctorow, of Boing Boing, sees the iPad as perhaps too “perfect” – too complete, too closed off to exploration. And here’s what Mark Pilgrim wrote about it, in a piece entitled “Tinkerer’s Sunset”:
Once upon a time, Apple made the machines that made me who I am. I became who I am by tinkering. Now it seems they’re doing everything in their power to stop my kids from finding that sense of wonder. Apple has declared war on the tinkerers of the world.
It’s a fair criticism – but as Gruber argues, it’s not quite the full picture. Not only is the iPad just one device among several that we use, but here’s the important bit: Kids will always find a way to make things work for them. We just have to show a little trust. As if to illustrate the point, Gruber shares the story of 13-year-old Sam, who recently wrote him to introduce an iPad app that the boy wrote himself. Gruber:
He’s 13 years old and he has created and is selling an iPad app in the same store where companies like EA, Google, and even Apple itself distribute iPad apps. His app is ready to go on the first day the product is available. Not a fake app. Not a junior app. A real honest-to-god iPad app. Imagine a 13-year-old in 1978 who could produce and sell his own Atari 2600 cartridges.
Somehow I don’t think young Mr. Kaplan sees the iPad as hurting his sense of wonder or entrepreneurism.
13-year-old iPad programmers? Absolutely. And Sam’s not the only one out there – not at all.
Yes, as it turns out the kids are, indeed, alright.