One Laptop Per Child Sucks
There’s nothing left to explore.
The whole world has the internet and computers. Everyone’s communicating together quicker than ever, but we still haven’t done anything worthwhile with the power of instant communication. We’ve got all this technology, but it’s not improving the world as much as we thought it would.
Now we’re giving kids in the third world computers through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. Countries are buying up cheap laptops to give to kids, in the new computer arms race. What exactly, these computers are supposed to magically do is beyond anyone. Looking ahead, the laptops will probably do exactly what affordable PC’s did to the
Kids will get hypnotized by the screen, and disconnect from the world around them.
Giving a young poor kid a computer is like giving them a ticket out of all of the worries of the world. All they have to do is learn how to use it, and they’ll permanently escape all poverty. I know, because I was a young poor kid who got a computer.
When I was twelve, I got my first computer. It was a Pentium 75Mhz with 32 megs of
Whatever time I spent on the computer away from family, away from friends was justified. It was my ticket to the easy life.
And so, days passed and years passed, and still I worked on the computer, absorbing everything. I waited for the day where I could redeem my check for all of the hard work.
Only, every other kid in the
This is what the kids in the third world are really getting with that laptop.
Because it’s inescapable, we live within the physical world. We thrive on human connection, the kind that doesn’t glow through a screen. This is forgotten when kids think they live within the plastic bubble of the computer and the screen. Instead of valuing and paying attention to what matters—time with family, volunteer work, school, etc—kids will go away into their own worlds, through the screens.
And it’s this disconnection with reality that causes a whole lot of problems. Television was bad, we thought, because it was just such a passive activity. Now, the internet is even worse, because the content is just as stupid as on TV, but it’s accepted as a productive activity.
What’s really being sold with these laptops is distraction. Give the third world laptops, and watch them waste their hours away on the internet instead of focusing on bettering their world, their land. It’s a distraction, plain and simple, and it will work. They’re thinking it’s a gift.
What the kids should do, instead, is focus on the things that matter, the things that make them different from the first world. Focus on healthy soil, focus on clean water, focus on clean air. A world view is being sold through these computers and the internet, one in which your land doesn’t matter. But in reality, your land is what matters the most. Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can stop eating food or drinking water or breathing.
The
So save yourself, kids. Get out before you get sucked in like we did. Get sucked into believing the computers could redeem you from the world. It’s a lie, none of us get to escape its inconveniences. Embrace the world instead, and make it a better place. We need it more than we need an internet.
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May 15th, 2007 16:03
I dunno what your problem is, man, but lots of us make pretty fantastic money from the time we invested in learning to use our computers. I really don’t understand what held you up, or what your complaint is, but just because it didn’t pay off for you doesn’t mean the rest of the world’s kids are going to wind up just as disillusioned.
May 15th, 2007 16:35
I’m not talking about today’s market. I’m talking about the market that will happen 10 years from now, when 20 or 30 million kids get their hands on laptops and see them as their liberation from the world. It just won’t work.
And just because you’re making fantastic money from computers doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come at a price. Sitting in front of a computer eight hours a day isn’t exactly what human beings were designed for.
I’m not attacking you, I’m wondering where these computers are supposed to be taking us.
May 15th, 2007 16:46
interesting rant, but i’d have to disagree with you as well. i believe the effect of one laptop per child will be much different. consider all the kids that have no access to proper school, of even decent text books. the internet is a gateway to the world’s library, along with much pointless entertainment. but that access alone has the potential to transform the poorest areas on the planet.
May 15th, 2007 17:04
ianmack,
The real problem though, is that education helps only to a point. We won’t have everyone being rocket scientists and physicists and molecular biologists and then be exempt from the underlying problems of poverty.
Just look at Cuba. They have a highly educated citizenry, and yet they’re still poor. You can blame that poverty on political restrictions, but there’s still the need for the basic needs to be taken care of.
People need the basics of life, and no matter how complicated or “intelligent” the world gets, there will be a need for clean food and water. These are the real problems we should be tackling, not more information to everyone without perspective.
May 16th, 2007 05:13
I don’t think it’s such a terrible idea. For example, the computers could hold the entire Wikipedia directory, help students to learn English, etc..
I like the fact that there is at least an opportunity to make a better living for themselves. You are right, that kid who gets a computer is going to be on it 24/7, but I know those kids are just as smart as any of us, and they are more determined to succeed.. So I have total faith that in the hands of the right child, they can learn & even one day make a living off the knowledge they got from that computer.