I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens

Posted by arch_deluxe 3 days ago

I didn't bring my son to a museum to look at screens(sethpurcell.com)

1145 points | 383 commentspage 6

ungreased0675 2 days ago|

It smells like grant consultants from here. Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to get new money for digital high tech exhibits (don’t you know that’s what kids are into?) than maintaining what already exists.

didibus 3 days ago||

I admit to not being a museum head myself. Now that I'm a parent though, I've gone to them all, multiple times. Before that, I'd not gone to any of them unless they're world famous.

If it wasn't for kids, nobody would go to most museums (non-famous ones especially)

Kids are simply the demographic, because every parent is looking for activities to entertain the kids every day.

Interactive non-screen based exhibits that are designed for kids are the best, but if you can't have that for cost/know-how reasons interactive multi-media exhibits are a good second on the "it did a good job entertaining my kid" spectrum.

Actually learning anything is a secondary demand from the consumer when it comes to museums unfortunately. Entertaining the kids is number one, bonus points if it also managed to entertain the parents.

SilverElfin 3 days ago||

Agree a lot of “museums” are turning into less of cool items and more of a lot of text and visuals and electronic displays. I could just do that at home and skip the inconvenience, cost, and exposure.

LightBug1 2 days ago||

My experience of "the culture": cultural spending cutbacks mean exhibitors are often forced to fall back to the minimal spend of a screen.

It's literally all they can afford.

econ 3 days ago||

A museum here plays an inaudible voice recording on a 30 min loop with the speaker persistently building on previous context. It was like browsing an unfamiliar code base.

AnthonBerg 3 days ago||

I’m inclined to believe that this happens because there are strong incentives to being able to add to your resume “Directed digital modernization of Museum of Note”.

JJMcJ 3 days ago||

Old enough to remember when most museums and art galleries were absolutely free.

This had pretty much ended by 1980, unfortunately, and now they are enormously expensive.

Workaccount2 3 days ago||

Why bother with hardware when you can just use software?

randycupertino 3 days ago||

Exactly. It's easier and cheaper for the museum to change exhibits when they just update the screen vs swapping out a hands on exhibit. Screens also use less floor space and are easier to maintain.

eloisant 2 days ago||

Because that's what a museum is supposed to be.

grishka 2 days ago||

Screens in such museums would work nicely to augment physical exhibits. So, instead of signs and such, not as the main event.

aucisson_masque 2 days ago|

Did the Author missed the note about digital age ? Society evolved since he was a kid.

His kid will also probably end up doomscrolling on TikTok and have the attention span of a gold fish.

That’s just how it is, you can’t change society and going against it is a tough fight.

I’d even say that the author contributed to it seeing his age and he works in tech.

sersi 2 days ago|

I disagree with you. Yes society evolved as a kid but I think nowadays we're going to see increased class division around screen use habits. Educated wealthy parents increasingly try to control screentime and teach their children how to manage it responsibly while uneducated parents or parents who are poor in time (because they need to have 2 jobs to feed their kids) will let their children have a lot more access to screens and won't help them form good habits. I think it's likely to seriously decrease upward mobility in the future.

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