Comment by resonious
1 year ago
Really awesome project. This bit made me think though:
> First: you have a limited choice of movies to watch. When I was a kid, we didn't have an infinite catalog of movies to watch.
Something always rubs me the wrong way with this way of thinking. "X is good because I had X when I was young." I don't necessarily disagree that X is good, but it's definitely not because you had it as a kid.
OP here
You make a good point. The "it was better in my day" argument isn't always valid. I didn't mean to imply that something is inherently good just because it existed in the past.
But I do believe that having a smaller collection is nicer. It leads to a deeper appreciation for what you have. Each item in your library feels more special and valuable. And getting something new becomes exciting (I still remember getting a copy of The Lion King on VHS). This isn't something I get from browsing Netflix because new stuff is constantly being added.
As a bonus, it also helps with decision paralysis, which young kids are more susceptible to. At least that's my experience. Give them lots of toys and they'll play with none. Keeping the toy selection limited and rotating them is better (at least for my kids).
Thank you for letting me reflect on this! I will rephrase the post.
That was very well said! We have our own experience with too much toys and I don't like it.
I really appreciate the effort you took for your kids here. Thanks for showing us!
I had the same reaction. There are many reasons why I also believe OP's solution is better than the usual having a kid use the remote to navigate Disney+.
Having a curated selection instead of a near infinite catalog full of noise is one of them. Not exposing the kids to a UX optimised for retention (a.k.a. addiction) would be my main motivation though.
Because I had that as a kid, would be at the bottom of the list.
It does help with decision paralysis, which can be especially hard for young kids. Not that it’s easy as an adult.
You could still have a giant library and rotate cards every week or something.
Yes, plenty of good reasons to like this project. I might buy something like it if it was off the shelf.
I personally would rather be interested in buying a "DIY kit" as a package and then build it myself as building it is the fun part (then the kids can use it) :)
But I do see the potential for primary schools / kindergartens, retirement homes or any group where they occasionally have screen time. Makes choosing the next movie much more fun and no need to interact with a digital UI.