This is a lovely bit of writing, and really points to the value of constraints.
Some of my favorite childhood memories were being at friends' houses, huddled over the computer, playing Space Quest or Zork. At one of my friends' houses, we were aware that Leisure Suit Larry was installed, and curious, but never played it because of the central location of the machine.
I think the shift we've seen TV is something similar. When I was a kid, TV was viewed as an antisocial medium ("the boob tube"), but I have really fond memories of sitting with my family watching Quantum Leap or Growing Pains. Now that everyone has their own screen to watch TV, it seems the studios don't even bother trying to make shows that appeal to an entire family.
We focus so much on the media (tv/internet/video games/books) when ascribing value, but, as this article indicates, the physical nature of the delivery (shared living room appliance vs portable individual screen) makes a huge difference.
The fixed computer is also a huge factor to facilitate supervised computer use (and make it a shared experience!) with kids at home.
As much as I agree with the point of the article, I keep getting tripped up that every second sentence is "It didn't X, it Y'ed".
I think it's repeated to form a stylistic device in the second paragraph, but then the shape is interspersed so much in the rest of the text that it reads like a clumsy first write.
Yes, this is definitely AI-generated. It's always weird that people don't even attempt to sanitize the output to look a little more human. The last pic was very nostalgic, however. It's like we have shared experiences very similar to the corner computer in the living room, complete with the stack of CDs (which will never get completely used).
Call me old-fashioned, but I have a family computer. I got rid of my laptop, and got a desktop instead. It stays in the living room, in a desk drawer. The monitor is a portable monitor, and it gets put away when the computer is not in use. My kids aren't old enough to use it yet, but it will be the family computer eventually.
I think the shift we've seen TV is something similar. When I was a kid, TV was viewed as an antisocial medium ("the boob tube"), but I have really fond memories of sitting with my family watching Quantum Leap or Growing Pains. Now that everyone has their own screen to watch TV, it seems the studios don't even bother trying to make shows that appeal to an entire family.
We focus so much on the media (tv/internet/video games/books) when ascribing value, but, as this article indicates, the physical nature of the delivery (shared living room appliance vs portable individual screen) makes a huge difference.
As much as I agree with the point of the article, I keep getting tripped up that every second sentence is "It didn't X, it Y'ed".
I think it's repeated to form a stylistic device in the second paragraph, but then the shape is interspersed so much in the rest of the text that it reads like a clumsy first write.
I'm still writting this now, from the couch. I fear how much screen time others waste.
Out of sight, out of mine - I think it's generally a good idea.