{"id":9453,"date":"2021-01-31T16:32:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9453"},"modified":"2021-01-31T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T21:32:07","slug":"kids-and-typewriters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9453","title":{"rendered":"Kids and Typewriters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019m writing about this other than that I find it really annoying and can\u2019t get it out of my mind. It sort of fits into the new Luddites category, which automatically makes it irksome but there\u2019s also the matter of it being completely pointless and stupid.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cthing\u201d in question is an article over at <a href=\"https:\/\/offspring.lifehacker.com\">Lifehacker<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/offspring.lifehacker.com\/you-should-buy-your-kid-a-typewriter-1846102618\">urges parents to buy their kids a typewriter<\/a>. That seems innocent enough until we get to the reasons. For example:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"org-ul\">\n<li>You don\u2019t have to walk to the printer to get the results; it\u2019s right there.<\/li>\n<li>Kids will learn to accept mistakes that are difficult to correct.<\/li>\n<li>Typewriters don\u2019t have screens and that\u2019s good (somehow).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cReal\u201d letters are more fun to receive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these so called reasons have trivial rejoinders that are so obvious there\u2019s no point in listing them but there are two points worth mentioning:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"org-ol\">\n<li>Notice how they embrace the New Luddite theme of \u201cthe old way is best; new-fangled ideas should be eschewed.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>They are, at base, not serious\u2014just silly, really.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you substitute <i>rotary phone<\/i> or <i>abacus<\/i> for <i>typewriter<\/i> the arguments make just as much sense. As I\u2019ve said before, I\u2019m perfectly happy for these people to go back to the farm, grow their own food, and carry water up from the well every morning. I just wish they\u2019d leave the rest of us alone to get on with our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m not sure why I\u2019m writing about this other than that I find it really annoying and can\u2019t get it out of my mind. It sort of fits into the new Luddites category, which automatically makes it irksome but there\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9453\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[177],"class_list":["post-9453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-new-luddites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9454,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions\/9454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}