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

Posted by arch_deluxe 9/10/2025

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

1185 points | 392 commentspage 7

grishka 9/10/2025|

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

aucisson_masque 9/11/2025||

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 9/11/2025|

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.

Frozen_Flame 9/10/2025||

It's disappointing to see but it feels as if to keep a futuristic theme and to provide almost an "edutainment" environment that a museum feels as though it must implement screens to keep up with the times. I think this might almost be comparable to how places like McDonalds that had themed play areas for kids have been wiped away. We aren't really designing many places where kids can be kids and when we do, we try to put more screens in there to connect with a younger technology savvy generation?

throwawayoldie 9/10/2025|

> It's disappointing to see but it feels as if to keep a futuristic theme and to provide almost an "edutainment" environment that a museum feels as though it must implement screens to keep up with the times.

And you just know that in board meetings of plenty of museums, someone is saying "We NeEd To MaKe ThE mUsEuM Ai-NaTiVe."

dfxm12 9/10/2025||

And the wonderful hands-on physical stuff that I loved as a kid? Jammed into out-of-the-way spaces in the Sir Isaac’s Loft and Air Show rooms. These rooms are terrific, and I was delighted to see they were absolutely packed with kids playing with stuff.

I'm really not sure what the problem is, given that these exhibits are there, popular and obviously accessible. Ok, the author has an issue with screens, but, hey, a lot of real science is done on screens today...

pomian 9/10/2025||

On the other hand, an app for your phone, or digital display placed by an artifact, it a bar code: could have as much detail as possible, with more and more in depth lessons that you can investigate depending on your own level of curiosity. (Or age.) A fantastic museum of the world - natural and human history in Ottawa, was great. But imagine, they have a diorama depicting a historical scene... Then there is a display counter in front where you can read what's going on in the diorama. Also a few selected elements from the display, shown behind that glass, but visible up close for us to admire. What is the description of a brass ring, in the display: "A brass ring."! We can see that! WTF? But we want to know: where was it found, what was it's purpose, why is this down here not something else. What era is it from? You could dig deeper: how was it made? Who made it? Where? With what technology? Brass? How did they blend the raw materials? Who wore it? Etc etc etc. A little electronic display could have that, It a link for everyone to follow - bar code for example we could scan. It could even link to a Wikipedia page, whatever. But, something! More than: "A brass ring"

Halan 9/10/2025||

Next time visit modern and classical art museums. Sorted.

kirykl 9/11/2025||

That’s why they want you to go into the office tho

natalie3p 9/10/2025||

I think a lot of the time, museums really want to be "immersive" and give kids (and adults) something interactive. The problem is that "interactive" defaults to a touchscreen because it's easy to implement and maintain and looks flashy, even if it doesn't actually teach anything or spark curiosity the way a hands-on exhibit does. Honestly though, I think these kids do want to interact with the real world but lack the chance to. Screens are seductive and safe, but nothing beats the thrill of making something move with your own hands and actually seeing the physics happen.

As an example, one exhibition I found pure joy in that doesn’t involve screens is the Museum of Illusions. It's hands-on, mind-bending, and utterly delightful.

ipython 9/11/2025||

Congratulations to us. Enshittification has come to museums.

As tfa states, physical exhibits - especially interactive ones - require extensive maintenance. Expensive maintenance is, well, expensive. Must cut costs. And here we are.

Reminds me also of the apocryphical story of a McDonalds mba. They needed to cut a few million dollars and noticed that removing ten sesame seeds from the bun of a Big Mac will do it. Ok, great, but repeat enough times and soon customers will notice.

ratelimitsteve 9/10/2025|

>poked at one of these [design a rocket apps] with my son, added too many boosters to their launch vehicle, and were told it failed “for reasons” in a way she found totally unhelpful and pointless.

This is tripping my bullshit-o-meter. If it just failed "for reasons" how do you know it failed because there were too many boosters? Kinda sounds like the game explained that to them.

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