I’ve always been one to enjoy it when someone puts out some piece of my childhood in a newer and more computerized way. However when I saw
this article a couple of weeks ago, about moving Etch A Sketch to a cell phone something inside me just said “why bother”. The ability to think far enough ahead in a creative way, that one line would end where the other would begin, and the ability to retrace your lines was the challenge. Then the ability to draw those particular shapes by turning the knobs just the right way, is now replaced with a button push. What skill is involved in using your keypad to draw a picture on your screen, or should I say combination of button pushes. The last trait that really bugged me was the fact that you could now save your drawings. As much as I hated erasing my drawings when I was a kid, it was part of using an Etch A Sketch, and you went in knowing this. Besides even the Etch A Sketch web site suggests taking a pictures of your finished work. At least they did one thing that made it seem a little bit cool, when you actually did erase the drawing they would make the phone vibrate, not bad.
