On iPad Wars and The Next Generation
The iPad detractors in a nutshell:
The iPad is designed for stupid people. Stupid parents will buy it for their smart children who will not reach their full potential and instead grow up stupid.
The iPad defenders in a nutshell:
We just want something that we can use, and that doesn’t make us stupid. Computers aren’t supposed to challenge users.
Both sides have valid points.
- Detractors:
Yes, you have a point. The iPad isn’t designed to educate; there’s no easy ramp-up from user to developer. Parents may erroneously believe it is a substitute for a proper computer, and for those with children without the desire or talent to develop software they will be right. For those with children beyond their intellect level, they will be horribly, horribly wrong. Sad.
- Defenders:
Yes, you have a point. Computers are obnoxiously difficult, and for the vast majority of people they are unnecessarily flexible and thus overly complex.
Here’s some advice from your Uncle Wabe which will piss off each side equally:
- Detractors:
Give up. You’ll never convince the vast majority of the web because they don’t care. They don’t want to hear about slaughterhouses or butchers; they just want to eat hamburgers. Most computers are ridiculously overpowered and unnecessarily flexible for 99.44% of the population, and anything that eliminates said complexity is a godsend. Parents ruining their children’s future through ignorance has been the norm for centuries; don’t blame Apple for their minute contribution to that tragedy.
- Defenders:
Remember that somebody has to develop iPad 2. If it isn’t going to be your children, your children will be cleaning the bathrooms of the children that do. Accept the fact that it isn’t a learning tool, that it’s more akin to a television than a computer. All those kids developing iPad apps? They learned their craft on a real computer. Claiming otherwise is just dogmatic and rightly earns you the label of “fanboy.”
In short, get it into the home and keep it out of the schools. Now, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?
Addendum: The other thing that is ticking me off: the unending comparison to the automobile. If you are trying to argue that the introduction of the iPad is a watershed moment that is destined to bring a renaissance to computers, do you really want to compare it to a sclerotic technology which last saw innovation with Henry Ford?