I'm lucky to be old enough to instinctively resist gamification; I lasted not even a day on Duolingo, starting to learn my fifth language. I hated the way it treated me like a toddler.
Thanks! Yes, Duolingo is terrible. That's the app avatar I was referring to in the post: it visibly becomes distraught if you don't log in every day. And for what? I know people that have been using Duolingo for years and are no closer to learning the language.
That, in a nutshell, is the problem with gamification, standardized testing, and most other tent-poles of modern education. They don't actually help children (or adults) learn anything other than how to "play the game."
look at it from their perspective... if you are even a decade older, you remember a world in which ubiquitous internet was not quite there yet, which implied enjoying a real life in reality. by the time they were old enough most of their parents were sticking devices in their hands the way our parents dumped us in front of televisions. you take the technology for granted. worse for them, they think they understand the technology and every time there's another dick pick, naked teen scandal it's clear they don't have a fucking clue.
we have been barely able to figure out what this new dimension of information proliferation implies and the idiots chasing digital dreams foist social media on us. now we're all fucked. and they'll bare the brunt of it. i can choose to walk away. they don't know how to.
I completely agree. Our brains are utterly incompatible with the firehose of information and external validation that technology delivers. Its contribution to anxiety and depression has been well-established by Jon Haidt and others, but we have no idea how much it is eroding our will and soul. The more we are trained to rely on external validation, the less capable we are of acting without it - and especially in contradiction to it.
So true. And now we're discovering--and it may well be too late--women are really losing their minds over this. Yeah, the young guys are lonely, but their depression pales in comparison to whatever mental breakdowns the young girls are having.
Excellent points.
I'm lucky to be old enough to instinctively resist gamification; I lasted not even a day on Duolingo, starting to learn my fifth language. I hated the way it treated me like a toddler.
Thanks! Yes, Duolingo is terrible. That's the app avatar I was referring to in the post: it visibly becomes distraught if you don't log in every day. And for what? I know people that have been using Duolingo for years and are no closer to learning the language.
That, in a nutshell, is the problem with gamification, standardized testing, and most other tent-poles of modern education. They don't actually help children (or adults) learn anything other than how to "play the game."
Yes! The friend who recommended Duolingo still religiously gathers points or whatever, but stumbles over basic conversation. I, meanwhile, am fluent..
😆
look at it from their perspective... if you are even a decade older, you remember a world in which ubiquitous internet was not quite there yet, which implied enjoying a real life in reality. by the time they were old enough most of their parents were sticking devices in their hands the way our parents dumped us in front of televisions. you take the technology for granted. worse for them, they think they understand the technology and every time there's another dick pick, naked teen scandal it's clear they don't have a fucking clue.
we have been barely able to figure out what this new dimension of information proliferation implies and the idiots chasing digital dreams foist social media on us. now we're all fucked. and they'll bare the brunt of it. i can choose to walk away. they don't know how to.
I completely agree. Our brains are utterly incompatible with the firehose of information and external validation that technology delivers. Its contribution to anxiety and depression has been well-established by Jon Haidt and others, but we have no idea how much it is eroding our will and soul. The more we are trained to rely on external validation, the less capable we are of acting without it - and especially in contradiction to it.
So true. And now we're discovering--and it may well be too late--women are really losing their minds over this. Yeah, the young guys are lonely, but their depression pales in comparison to whatever mental breakdowns the young girls are having.
Thx Alex.