architectzero's recent activity

  1. Comment on Children today are suffering a severe deficit of play in ~life

    architectzero
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    No idea what the cause is (I suspect it’s multi-factor, and thus complex), but I have anecdotally observed this trend starting slowly around the late 90s, and snowballing ever since. As a parent...

    No idea what the cause is (I suspect it’s multi-factor, and thus complex), but I have anecdotally observed this trend starting slowly around the late 90s, and snowballing ever since. As a parent of two kids (12 and 8) at time of writing, this was a big concern of mine even before having kids - would they ever get an opportunity for unstructured play?

    When I was in elementary school (1980 to 1986), I used to walk to school (~1Km away) with a group of kids ranging from 6-11 years old, and often on my own, even in the winter when it was cold and dark. After school we’d often go outside and just bump into each and start playing, but even then using the phone to call each other first to arrange things was becoming more and more common, and this is something my dad lamented (just go ring their doorbell!). By junior high (87-89), we never rang doorbells any longer, it was always call first to figure when/where to “hang out”. That said, play was completely unstructured, and I did some absolutely insane things and managed to survive (sheer luck, no joke),

    Anyhow, the key was that when I went outside, there were other kids already there just messing around, so there was stuff to do. These days, there are no kids outside. I mean, AT ALL. Some kids are kept really busy, but other kids who aren’t really busy are still kept indoors because there are no other kids outside which creates this feedback loop that keeps kids indoors. Here’s where things get interesting though… they’re not “doing nothing”, they’re playing… a lot, it just doesn’t look like the play I (most of us) experienced.

    My kids are busy playing and learning in a virtual world, along with millions and millions of other kids. Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, etc. are where they gather these days to play, and they do play. My wife and I try to give our kids as much freedom to play as they see fit, and we try hard to maintain their privacy, but obviously we overhear them and their chatter is… almost exactly as it was back in our day.

    Point being that on one hand my wife and I have all this anxiety about our kids, hoping they are developing normally, heck hoping that they even have the chances to develop “normally”. But, very little that they do looks familiar, on the surface, and thus is another source of anxiety. However, digging into it a bit more reveals that they are still playing, it’s just very, very different, and yet the same. It’s not physical (which makes it much more difficult to promote physical health), but their social development seems to be progressing quite well (oddly enough).

    Anyhow, long ramble over. Kids are playing as much as they ever have (if not more), but it’s just very different, and this causes a lot of anxiety amongst parents, and probably moral panic in the Gen-X (my gen) and Boomer generations.

    9 votes

  2. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    architectzero
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    Making more 8-bar loops and not developing them into complete tracks, as per usual, but this time I have one that has something to it so… maybe one day it will grow into a real track. Not down...

    Making more 8-bar loops and not developing them into complete tracks, as per usual, but this time I have one that has something to it so… maybe one day it will grow into a real track. Not down about it, as this is just my stress relief hobby.

    I also got a new (to me) synth last week and I’ve been exploring sound design on that, and just noodling around for fun.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Researchers introduce knitted furniture in ~engineering

  4. Comment on Researchers introduce knitted furniture in ~engineering

    architectzero
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    Interesting idea. Essentially a new 3d printing technique. Not sure if it does anything better than existing techniques, but I’m sure applications will be explored over time. I have a hunch that...

    Interesting idea. Essentially a new 3d printing technique. Not sure if it does anything better than existing techniques, but I’m sure applications will be explored over time. I have a hunch that its value right now is in the knitting algorithms, and the knitting machine configuration; the concept of producing reconfigurable furniture is just a part of the funding pitch to make it relatable to laypeople like us.

    2 votes