In 30 years most of today tech won’t work at all. Think of everything that depends on a server being online and on you paying a subscription.

I can still listen to CDs from 30 years ago, read books from centuries ago and so on. I can play all my Game Boy and PC games. At a certain point society collectively accepted to pay rent rather than own stuff and in 30 years time we won’t have much left from this era.

Yeah, the double standard... We are here on hacker news probably because our parents let us freely explore computers and the internet. "Screen time" wasn't even a concept. Most friends I talked to had really off-hands parents as well, parents were rarely involved or interested in what the kids were doing. Glad I didn't have overbearing parents who limited my technology use to the radio and LPs.

My parents did, and they were right. I had limited tv, games, and computer time. They kicked me out of the house after school, only to return for supper. I am eternally grateful for that decision. I have rich friendships that continue thirty years later.

Today, the tech is even worse for children. Playing too much Nintendo might isolate you and hurt your schoolwork, but iPad toddlers are fundamentally damaged.

You do raise a valid point. 30 years ago was 1996. So, a Nintendo 64 would be overkill, but a Super Nintendo would be fine, right? And a palm pilot would be overkill, but something like a Texas Instruments TI49/A would be fine, right? so you would say if you wanted to use 30 year old tech you should really use 35 year old tech or so, perhaps.

Yes. There was a massive hand-wringing about cable TV for instance. And cordless phones (much less car phones!).