<p>I’m with Seven Dad on this one. When I was in grad school, I made the HUGE mistake of getting a TV a couple of terms into my program. I ended up having to take it back to my parents and leave it there shortly before the end of the semester! And good thing too. I would decide to relax for half an hour and three hours later would realize I still hadn’t done anything. I don’t think the issue is new versus old technologies so much as whether high school students have the self-discipline that I obviously lacked as a twenty-something year old when I found it extremely difficult to turn off a distraction when there was work to be done.</p>
<p>This thread has certainly strayed from the OP’s intent…but here are some additional thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don’t get me wrong…I am no Luddite, even with regard to gaming. I am in the generation that played Pong and the Atari 2600…I grew up alongside video games.</li>
</ul>
<p>We have a Wii U platform at home (Little Inferno FTW!) and I have a PS3 with Logitech G27 wheel/pedal rig at work. That’s right…in the office. Because sometimes it’s fun to bang out a few fast laps in GranTurismo to break up in time at my desk. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>My POV has definitely been colored by the experience of a very close friend whose step-son is a poster child for the potential downside of gaming.</p></li>
<li><p>From my observations of friends’ kids and the youth I supervise in church, I think boys are more likely to lapse into bad habits/addiction with gaming. I don’t have boys, so it’s a non-issue in our house. My girls went through a phase of playing a lot of the Lego Harry Potter games…but since the console is in our living room (and not in their rooms…they don’t even have their own TVs), it was very easy to cut their sessions short.</p></li>
<li><p>I have two major reservations about gaming beyond the time-suck they represent: A) Influence on attitudes about illegal/immoral/inappropriate behavior; B) lack of physical activity involved/opportunity cost of playing video games vs. getting physical activity.</p></li>
<li><p>Trying to bring this back to BS…when would you have the time to play? And in the free time you do have, isn’t having a “house” console in the common room enough?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I can weigh in on those last questions. My kid–who imo was gaming way too much when he went off to bs–doesn’t really have time for it at school. I think he’s gamed some on week-ends with the kids in the dorm, but otherwise it’s mostly what he does when he’s bored at home. However, he has dorm friends who I gather spend lots of their social time on the week-ends gaming, rather than going out to dances or other social activities. Most of it’s online, laptop to laptop. So no, I don’t think the house console cuts it–they’re on to a whole other world. </p>
<p>I’d guess that most kids who want to go to a competitive boarding school understand the addictive nature of games and know how to set their own limits–which is, ultimately, what they’re going to have to do anyway. My kid, for example, campaigned hard for a computer with a good graphics card at home–even helped pay for it to get what he wanted–but didn’t press the issue at all when it came to his laptop for school, figuring he wouldn’t have time to play. I’m guessing that the self-discipline they need to succeed at bs kicks in for most kids and keeps their gaming within reasonable limits. At my two-year college, though, it’s a different story…kids fail out all the time because they spend all night gaming and sleep through their classes. On-line gambling is a whole other scary distraction. </p>
<p>One other obeservation is that lots of boys with better things to do–sports, other ec’s, academics, dating–seem to outgrow obsessive gaming around 15, just about the time they start growing into their skins.</p>
<p>So you mean there’s hope for my now 14 year old son? I’ll look forward to him turning 15 then!</p>
<p>At my old school, the school would lend out laptops when someone had a repair issue for their own. Some other kids and I actually had one lent to us for the year since we were on FA and, frankly, buying a laptop would have been a hardship. I came from a family where we shared a family desktop. Even a school issued older laptop was a thrill for me. You can get by with basic. Mine was basic.
So, if you can’t afford one…don’t be afraid to ask. My roommate’s dad offered to let me have his old one (they had some old one, unused, sitting around their home). My parents told me I would have to work the summer to pay him something for it. In the end, I worked and bought a new one…but was grateful that the dad offered in a very nice, non judgmental way!
HSG</p>
<p>Many, if not all, boarding schools shut off WiFi at lights-out time, so that at least limits the ability to web surf/game on a laptop. But a lot of kids now have 3G/4G service for their phone and/or iPad…</p>
<p>Also, GMTplus 7, some kids connect their phones with their laptop and feed the internet connection to it.</p>
<p>I have a laptop warranty question. We’re buying DS a Macbook Pro to take to school (his school requires all of the students to have laptops.) We always get AppleCare when we buy our Macs and I was thinking we’d do that for this one, but AppleCare doesn’t cover accidental spills which I could easily see happening at boarding school, whether his fault or someone else’s. Costco is having a deal $99 for a 3 year Square Trade warranty which does cover accidental spills and drops (and is half the price of Apple Care.) </p>
<p>What I’m not quite clear on is aside from that, are they basically the same kinds of warranties? Would it be redundant to get both AppleCare and Square Trade or do people tend to get one or the other? His school does recommend getting accidental damage coverage which does seem prudent, and honestly to pay basically $33/a year to not have to worry if he’s going to knock his Starbucks over onto his laptop (which I have done myself!) may be worth it.</p>
<p>(I have also heard of adding the computer to a homeowner’s policy but we’re renters.)</p>
<p>How have other folks insured their kids computers?</p>
<p>I charged my D’s laptop on a credit card that doubles the manufacturer’s warranty. It probably does not cover spills and I’m not sure if I looked into a separate warranty or not. If I were doing it today, especially for a pricey mac, I’d consider $99 for 3 years including spills, to be a bargain and a smart purchase.</p>
<p>Spend some time reading the fine print of both Apple Care and the Square Trade warranties. There might be a reason to get both, though I can’t help you there.</p>
<p>Can’t answer the Mac specific question, but we got a 4-year warranty on our son’s Dell through Dell and it has been repaired twice at no cost to us. I think the extra we paid might have been $200, but worth every penny as it looks like it just might make it through his high school years! Our kid totes his laptop everywhere and the wear and tear is inevitable.</p>