Toys to Tools: Learning not to make stuff.....

[Uglydog]

Saw this article about the demise of a large toy store.
The cause reflects a cultural shift in how and what children are learning. I'm wondering if there are long term implications for home shops and industry.

http://e.startribune.com/Olive/ODN/...18/03/17&entity=Ar00902&sk=44F68065&mode=text

"But the chain’s biggest foe was neither nimbler retailers nor that heavy debt load. It was the undermining of the very concept of the toy. For most of recorded history, toys have been physical things with which children play and create, telling themselves stories about the world and their place in it. ..... The rules we made up as we went along, with only our imaginations as guides. That was what toys were for.

By the 1990s, toys had to do things: They blinked, they spoke, they walked or rolled along the floor. They operated not according to the whims of children but according to definitions imposed by their creators. And a piece of the imagination died.

.... nowadays even very young children prefer the touchable screen to the touchable toy. Apart from a niche here and there, toy stores no longer serve any discernible function."

Daryl
MN

 

[TTD]

Sad indeed, but unfortunately, so true at the same time.

I can remember as a little kid playing, or I should say ‘building’, for hours & hours on end with “Tinker Toys”…anybody remember those? Don’t know if they even make/sell them anymore.

Had this very same conversation with my 9yr old nephew on Xmas Day (re: playing with Tinker Toys). After explaining to him what they actually were, he looked at me with a screwed up look on his face & asked why I would want to play with “fireplace kindling”….true story! And with that, he disappeared into the rec room with his new Playstation, tablet & whatever other electronic gizmo he got.

I admit that I giggled at his response, but found it a bit troubling at the same time knowing that this is the thought process of most kids today….the very same kids that will be running the country some day. Kinda scary when you think about it….

 

[Robert LaLonde]

I had an Erecter set from which I once made a roller coaster. It was pretty cool... until the train car launched off the end of the coaster and all the wheels flew off when it hit the wall. Well that was cool too, but in a "watch this" sort of way.

 

[pdentrem]

Until we stop programming the kids via smartphone tech, we are likely to have a major continuing problem in fixing and manufacturing just about anything that we use. Just look at the problem any of the trades are having finding younger people to learn and do the work. Even in factory settings where the pay is actually pretty good, getting people even to come for interviews is hard. We are having to hire older and train them but they are not likely to remain more than a few short years as retirement is their next step. We could hire a couple tool and die but try to find them!

 

[Ken from ontario]

It is sad indeed when physical tangible toys are not interesting to children any more but I'm not sure if it's bad sign of what's ahead.

 

[dlane]

Yup it’s getting pretty sad ,I’ve posted this here before but it fits this thread
Tried hiring the neighbor kid to do yard work , that lasted 10min with his phone stuck in his ear.

 

[BRIAN]

We used to be amused when a child unpacked the toy and played with the box. but now the child cant play with the box because it does
not know how to play.
B

 

[woodchucker]

Saw this article about the demise of a large toy store.
The cause reflects a cultural shift in how and what children are learning. I'm wondering if there are long term implications for home shops and industry.

http://e.startribune.com/Olive/ODN/StarTribune/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=MST/2018/03/17&entity=Ar00902&sk=44F68065&mode=text

"But the chain’s biggest foe was neither nimbler retailers nor that heavy debt load. It was the undermining of the very concept of the toy. For most of recorded history, toys have been physical things with which children play and create, telling themselves stories about the world and their place in it. ..... The rules we made up as we went along, with only our imaginations as guides. That was what toys were for.

By the 1990s, toys had to do things: They blinked, they spoke, they walked or rolled along the floor. They operated not according to the whims of children but according to definitions imposed by their creators. And a piece of the imagination died.

.... nowadays even very young children prefer the touchable screen to the touchable toy. Apart from a niche here and there, toy stores no longer serve any discernible function."

Daryl
MN

The problem is that their imagination does not grow. Toys help build Imagination. And imagination is what leads to great engineering and scientific breaktrhoughs, and design. So we maybe losing a generation of builders, of thinkers, of dreamers.

 

[Boswell]

I am not sure where I fall on this. I played with tinker toys and erector sets as a kid. Built a Heathkit short wave radio with my mom and dove into computers with the release of the Apple II and TI99/4a. These built important skills that I have used my whole life. I have do doubt that we loose something when multiple generations of kids grow up playing with electronics rather than mechanical engineering toys.
However
We also gain something. Self driving cars (as an example) would not be possible in one generation. The advances in electronics and software and all that goes into it, like all other things is built on the past. How many of the people that are designing self driving cars played with their Nintendo on Christmas morning instead of a erector set and wondered what could be done with small powerful computers?

When people started moving off of farms into the city at the dawn of the industrial revolution, did their parents lament that they would not have the basic skills to feed themselves because they learned mechanical engineering instead of farming/ranching. Probably.

I don't know if progress is good or bad but I know that I am unlikely to change it and so far, in my lifetime it has been pretty cool.

 

[Silverbullet]

The push has always go to college get an easy job for big money. Trouble is a very large percentage of graduates never do get those high paying jobs. There's no push for learning a trade working with your hands and mind . Nope society wants mindless dupes to end up with a debt so large they can't pay it off. Toys we had as kids were all a push to learn to use the brain and hands to reach satisfaction of building things that worked or didn't.
I still have a mister machine robot that could be taken apart and rebuilt with a wind up motor. And of course the erector set , building logs . Even the American flyer train everything had a job building experience. Oh and the worst tool ever the red Ryder bb gun . Yes we hunted for food when I was a boy. The greatest memories of all the male family was hunting on uncle Jake's woods and farm.
Not one yuppy or liberal could ever live off the land itself.
Good skill toys will come back they will have to.