China Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Guelph family lives like it's 1986 GUELPH - If you ever need to know who was the prime minister in 1960 and you’re willing to wait 10 minutes for the answer, Blair McMillan is your man. He’ll take his time carefully thumbing through a volume of his vintage encyclopaedia set, donated by a bewildered soul who probably wondered why the 26-year-old father of two couldn’t just get an Internet connection. The thing is, Blair and his girlfriend Morgan, 27, are pretending it’s 1986. And they’re doing it because their kids – Trey, 5, and Denton, 2 – wouldn’t look up from their parents’ iPhones and iPads long enough to kick a ball around the backyard. That’s why their house has banned any technology post-1986, the year the couple was born. No computers, no tablets, no smart phones, no fancy coffee machines, no Internet, no cable, and – from the point of view of many tech-dependent folks – no life. “We’re parenting our kids the same way we were parented for a year just to see what it’s like,” Blair said. They do their banking in person instead of online. They develop rolls of film for $20 each instead of Instagramming their sons’ antics. They recently traveled across the United States using paper maps and entertaining their screaming kids with colouring books and stickers, passing car after car with TVs embedded in the headrests and content infants seated in the back. The plan is to continue living like it’s 1986 until April 2014. The only exception to their downgraded lifestyle is their car, which remains a 2010 Kia minus a GPS. Click on the link for the full article and video Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Is there a Ghibelline family to oppose them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rictus58 Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 apparently they also feel 1986 hairstyles are the way to go too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 They're the new Amish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Genius Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 apparently they also feel 1986 hairstyles are the way to go too. They're Canadian. A mullet and flannel shirts pass as formal wear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRSmith Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 No cable? Ah man I can see myself getting stuck behind these folks at the grocery store and they try to pay by check since they did not have debit cards in 1986 and it was illegal to use credit cards then too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceman Spiff Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I can't tell if the hair/clothes is supposed to be 1986, too. It's a Jose Bautista jersey, not George Bell...but he's rocking the mullet and she looks like she stepped out of 1986 as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I had cable in 1980. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 There were computers in the 1950s, and cable TV, really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 i don't see how they're doing the kids any favors. technology is here. it expands their horizons. if their noses are buried too deeply in it, then pull their noses out. Depriving them of the advantage technology can bring is pointless. I'd love to see the reaction of their teachers when they get a report written from a 25 year old encyclopedia. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjfootballer Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I also had internet access back in 1982. Al Gore was our next door neighbor. No Brittanicas for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 My step-brother is a major league geek.. total computer guy from the get go. the first internet i recall was his phone hookup, which was this shoeshine box sized thing that he had to put the phone on after dialing into the connection. It was maybe 1985-86. He would tell us it was hooked up, and it took more than half a day for him to download an ascii image of a paper that he could then print. He never went to school, always messing with his Amiga. When he was about 19 he was headhunted by Microsoft, and he is one of the original development team of Access. He's worth a few million now. Living alright. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 i don't see how they're doing the kids any favors. technology is here. it expands their horizons. if their noses are buried too deeply in it, then pull their noses out. Depriving them of the advantage technology can bring is pointless. I'd love to see the reaction of their teachers when they get a report written from a 25 year old encyclopedia. ~Bang I agree it is extreme, but there are some useful skills. Even writing a paper, the act of going through an encyclopedia or other published sources versus online sources, I feel, brings a different level to research. I was on the cusp of the information age in college and there was a lot of sifting through books because you didn't know where the piece of information you're looking for was. But in the process one could find, serendipitously, other info that could be useful for that paper or others. Internet searches just serve up specifically what you're looking for and the veracity can be very questionable. But in the modern age, that's a different skill altogether—have to identify valid sources from bad hits. They talk about reading a map as an archaic skill. In the age of GPS you won't need it much, but when you do need it it's a good skill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Encyclopedia books are obsolete before they are even published. The Internet, despite passing too much false information has improved research, a lot. And I used to love reading the encyclopedia when I was a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wantarace17 Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Totally agree with Bang. These parents are hurting their kids more then helping them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjah Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I could see doing that for a weekend, or for a 3-day camping vacation. Something like that. Keep a mobile phone in your car and secretly check it twice a day to make sure there are no emergencies with friends or family. But for a year? Yeah, not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueinBuf Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 The kids are 5 and 2, I think they could live to be 6 and 3 without getting an Ipad and still be just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 For one, they are only doing this for a year, so their kids aren't going to be missing out on using technology during their school years. I applaud it but doubt it will have any impact unless they set limits when they re-introduce tablets to their kids when the year is over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted September 11, 2013 Share Posted September 11, 2013 I can't even remember how I survived before cell phones. Did I really leave the house without a high-speed connection to every person I've ever known? It seems preposterous. What did I do when I was at the grocery store and didn't know if I was supposed to get yellow mustard or dijon? Guess? Buy both? It must have been utter chaos. I vaguely remember pushing 10-10-321 on a silver and black box. I think that was my first DVD player? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsmarydu Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Dewey Decimal System, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistertim Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Dewey Decimal System, anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsmarydu Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 That was funny, mistertim! I remember my husband flipping out years ago about his internet being down & his daughter needed to write a paper, blah, blah...I said, "Ever heard of a library? Yes, it means you're gonna have to put pants on & drive her over there...does she know anything about the card catalog? Can she even find a book?" He laughed it all off a the time, but I meant it as a serious challenge. Part of research is knowing how to research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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