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submitted 9 months ago by Goodman@discuss.tchncs.de to c/196

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[-] nslatz@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago

There was a story years ago about some scientists who dropped a box of tablets into a village somewhere that had no previous contact with modern tech. They went back some time later, and the kids had figured out, not only how to use them, but had networked them too. I wonder what ever happened with that, or if it was even true? I suppose I should google it.

[-] nslatz@lemmy.world 49 points 9 months ago

https://www.fastcompany.com/2681011/ethiopian-kids-hacked-their-donated-tablets-in-just-five-months

[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 31 points 9 months ago

“We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes!

Jfc, the racism oozing from that statement.. 🤢

[-] princessnorah 32 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

What happens if you drop off a thousand Motorola Xoom tablet PCs in a village with kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they’ll have taught themselves to customize the software, reactivate disabled features and, perhaps, start down the path of learning to read.

Even this first paragraph by the author. These kids clearly already know how to fucking read, there’s written words in the background of the photos, including stuff that looks written by a child.

[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah, the whole framing is just so white-saviour/noble savage esque..

E: and before I get a "well how are they supposed to frame it??!1" - "kids given tablets for the first time easily learn not only how to use them, but personalise them too". Simple.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago

The first bolded part, that's just lol. But for the second, the youth literacy rate there is 55%. It's low enough that it might not be that horrible of an assumption. But combined with the first part, yeah...

[-] LemmysMum@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

The literacy rate in the US has 54% of the adult population reading under an 8th grade comprehension level. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2020/09/09/low-literacy-levels-among-us-adults-could-be-costing-the-economy-22-trillion-a-year/?sh=5c4986554c90

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Not sure what the US has to do with this. But I guess if you wanted to compare the literacy rates, Ethiopia is at 51.8 adult literacy rate and the US at 86%.

Not sure what we get out of that comparison though.

[-] princessnorah 3 points 9 months ago

That line reads like some Boomer who has no idea how computers work. Doing what they did to those tablets required the prior ability to read.

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

whoever dropped off those tablets and wrote this article should probably try it again on North Sentinel Island. I think that's the effect they were hoping for.