Teenage Sons and Techno Temptation

The dark truth

I am the mother of a teenage son.  If you are the mother one of these you will understand why I sometimes find myself in front of the computer with a wild look in my eye, a mallet in one hand and a claw hammer in the other; why I sometimes wish new technology had never been born.

It starts at a tender age, for example 6 years.   The boy in question comes home from school and informs you that he wants an electronic thing (ET).  The type of ET he wants depends on what is in fashion.  He really really wants the ET, he needs to join the club of boys because everybody has one (except him).

It seems innocent enough at first, at last he is able to sit still and concentrate and you have time to peel the spuds, then cook the spuds, and finally redecorate the kitchen.   You decide to experiment to see just how far it goes before they snap out of it;  12 hours per day and they don’t.

With the arrival of the teenage years, if you let things run their course, your home is pervaded by the stench of virtual death.  Your son takes to hanging out with urban killers, gangland car thieves and hideous intergalactic robot killing machines.  Your son and his friends pass their time killing to beat them, killing to survive,  and will die at their hands on a regular basis. Watch your sons in front of the computer:  their jaws drop open, they jitter and grunt, stabbing out with blind fingers.  Disembodied voices caw from phone and Skype, “what the f***” and “I’m dead”.  Your son’s friends invade your home with concealed palm sized temptations, they invade on a virtual level too, things are downloaded and uploaded into your computer without your knowledge, nothing is secret and everything is known – to your son - but not to you.    They agree they are addicted, they agree with everything you say.  But ultimately, the temptation is too strong.    I am on a mission to stop the games, they are on a mission to let them in, it becomes another, quite hopeless, game.

Left unchecked, the gaming invasion can cause your teenaged son to forget everything: he will forget to talk, eat sleep and pick up his dirty pants.  The virtual world crushes all in its path:  imagination, conversation, bodily activity, tranquillity, passion, and availability for washing up duties.  It renders promises meaningless and truth a thing of the past.  Left unchecked I am convinced that I will one day find a skeleton seated before the screen, its jaw dropped open, its hand eternally clenching the mouse.

Is there a Way of Computing?


Looking for Hope

I’m looking for alternatives, I’m looking for something that will engage my son, take him out of the zone of killer games and mindless quasi-communication (hw r u? gd)  without opposing the forces, desires and creative abilities that are so obviously part of him.  Without trying to separate him from the exponentially changing technical world in which we all find ourselves...or lose ourselves.

  

Alternative Technologies

I bring news of great joy, an antidote.  I bring you the story of how the human spirit can surf the tidal wave of new technology and triumph, how faith in humanity allows us, (those of us who want to and are capable of it) to find creative and moral freedom in front of the computer.

Once upon a time Linus Benedict Torvalds, a Finnish American software engineer, had a good idea.   He created LINUX and gave it away.

“What is Linux?”  I ask my teenage son:  Words pour from his mouth which appear to have sense and syntax, but I can’t make anything of it,  I just can’t grasp anything…graspable.

“Yes, but WHAT is Linux?”  I ask.  “core, distribution, exploitation system, opensuse Kubuntu Lubuntu Wordy one…”  says my son, or something similar: my brows knit, I hold up my hand…

“But what IS Linux?”  I ask, making little grasping gestures with my hands.  My son becomes more than a little impatient with me. I become impatient back,  “I am a total technical ignoramus I live and function in a real world, I’ve always got along without virtuality until now, and so, for the sake of my generation,  please what IS this thing and also WHAT IS IT FOR so I know whether or not I need one?”

Phutting noises emit from his lips, his eyes roll heavenward, and he shouts a bit, using his new Version Two upgraded loud scratchy voice.  But eventually, with the help of a few diagrams which he sketches for me, I have managed to understand this much: 

It is my screen, the thing I see when I turn on my computer.  It is the interface between human me and the shadowy world of the Computer.  It translates the ungraspable binary world of the computer into something which I can see and understand and which offers me options which I can take up such as opening my emails.   Linux is the equivalent of Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac IOSX. 

Why would I want to change my screen view?

I can offer moral, technical and financial reasons, read on...

Linux and the Great Give Away

In the Microsoft story there are two pioneering players, one famous and iconic, and a co-founder with an unmemorable name (Paul Allen b.1953) who had lots of  ideas which Bill Gates ( born 1955) was able to put into action for profit.  In the Linux story, an inspirational character (Richard Stallman b.1953) helped a young amateur programmer called Linus Torvalds (b.1969) to start off on the right track. The right track is; give it away.

Richard Stallman, Freeware Inspiration

Linus Torvalds, Founder of Linux

Bill Gates Cofounder Microsoft

Paul Allen Cofounder Microsoft

The Linux story is told here, elegantly and succinctly, for people with not much time or concentration.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocq6_3-nEw

To know more about the idealist, visionary and activist, Richard Stallman, (helpful mnenomics Tall Man, All Man, Stall (the baddies) Man) the bare bones of his story can be read here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

What if we got rid of Them and Us, and we concentrated on Us?

What if we did things based on Need rather than Greed?

 The Alternative Way

Share your idea and give your software product to the world

Don't hog it and charge for it darling, here's why

When you share the world will be inspired,

Ideas will bounce and further ideas will be born

Humanity benefits (you are part of humanity after all)

Everyone is free to benefit from your product, and contribute to it!

You put in place laws so it is impossible to commercialise your product for personal gain

But you let people use it to improve or fuel their own businesses

You have a world wide network of creativity and solutions

You have a world wide network of friendly colleagues ready to help out

You are FREE from company restrictions and constrictions

From having unlimited good ideas crushed to protect a limited company

You don't need to be worried, mean and grasping, hiding from or attacking enemies...

Instead you are free to help others, humanity and yourself at the same time, as you choose

Linux rarely suffers viruses because everyone has access to ‘fill in weaknesses’ in the system to avoid viruses and solve them, de-bug, find solutions, upgrade and improve;  also there is no money-making exploiting power to ‘rebel against’ or ‘punish’ and so there are fewer attacks.  

Here are two examples of commercial interest taking precedence over human interest:  James Dyson when he cracked it with the bagless hoover, was turned down because companies were interested in selling hoover bags, and then there's a certain laboratory in the news lately, and the vital cancer data which it witheld... 

Linux is continually given away and shared, in a continual process of change and development, in line with life.

As Linus Torvalds says (pardon the grammar):  "The cyberspace earnings I get form Linux come in the format of having a Network of people that know me and trust me, and that I can depend on in return."  As Linus says;  "In my opinion Microsoft is a lot better at making money than it is at making good operating systems."  And:  "Any program is only as good as it is useful.

ETHICAL, EFFECTIVE, FREE AND FUN!

Back to Teenage Boys and IT

There seem to me to be certain principles at stake as we try to guide our children through a New Technology terrain is new to us and changing exponentially all the time.  Here is what I hold onto:

Our teenagers are going to be seduced by computers, as are we all, so it’s good to know how they work, mechanically, morally, technically, to make sure we are in charge of them, and not they of us.  To avoid being sucked into addictive consumerism. And there is endless educational fun to be had on this project that absolutely does not involve mindless killing games and can involve human discussion, physically making things and reading Linux magazines for example.

Learning about and installing Linux is an option for freeing yourself from Microsoft, its charges, its invasion of our computers, its technical problems and its underlying moral values which undermine creativity and promote over consumption.   Our teenage son as been an active participant and is now the family leader in Linux and has installed it in his father's computer and a family friend's computer. 

Exploring and discussing the world of ‘free ware’ is a wonderful topic!

Building a Raspberry Pi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi (small simple cheap educational computer kit)  is another idea.

Do you know of others, have you tried them?

Insisting that New Technology turns towards honesty, transparency, sharing, genuine creativity and faith in humanity seems to me like a vital mission for our children.