I didn't see your name on the ballot.
People give all sorts of reasons why they don't/won't, but the end result is that they're represented by people less competent than they are.

Your predictable battleplan is your weakness. Mix it up a little the keep The Man on his toes.

Are you trolling? The Wii exists in response to the demographic split you describe, it didn't create it.

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

My field is like that. We're not actively trying to keep people off our turf (in fact, we need good computer-knowledgable people, please join us). I wish there were dozens of people from diverse educational backgrounds interested in this subject, but there just aren't.
At this point in my career, anything I submit will, within two or three paragraphs, be met with "Oh, this is that guy who I met at the conference last year." There are literally three people submitting stuff on my topic and each of us has a unique spin on it.

Wegman's stocks Mexican-bottled Coca-Cola made with real sugar in 12oz glass bottles. It's like I'm ten years old again (the only thing missing is trying unsuccessfully to pull two out simultaneously from a vending machine).

Of course we have it. Yanks call it "screen."
I like the term "fly wire" though. It's very descriptive for what it does.
We don't, however, have the hats with the corks unless we brought it back from a trip Down Under.

read the first sentence in a bookstore as a kid. It was the large paperback with the color plates. Couldn't leave without it. Spent my allowance on it instead of whatever I'd actually gone in to get.

No. For people like you there are highly profitable products that allow you to pat yourself on the back.

Facebook itself may be a fad, but when it falls out of favor, it will only be because of a mass exodus to another microblogging site similar to it. Interpersonal communication will not revert back to the way it was.

It's important to realize why that recommendation is in place, though. The problem with TV is that it isn't interactive at all, thus there isn't any opportunity to develop any skills. Video games are interactive, but aren't as interactive as physical objects and live humans.
However, if a grown-up and a child are interacting with one another while using a game/computer as the object of joint attention then it isn't any better or worse than playing together reading a book or manipulating blocks. I don't recommend giving up blocks and books, but the blanket statement "all screens == bad" isn't supported by the research.

Spot on! I would add that this means that you're the best output device as well. The skill you're developing during lap time on the computer is joint attention. The reason that Baby Einstein doesn't work is not because it's on a screen, but because it lacks authentic human interaction.

You are correct. While there is research that an impoverished infancy can result in a child being developmentally behind, there isn't any research that you can push kids ahead beyond a certain level. You can send a kid to academically rigorous preschool, but on average, by 3rd grade (age 8 in the U.S.), their peers will have caught up with them.
The science supports the Finnish way of doing things, and those of us who actually are developmental researchers in the U.S. are continually frustrated that educational policy, and often the demands of the parents, are quite contrary to what the research suggests.

On the other hand, if it's a child with atypical development, 18 months may be bordering on too old:
These kids benefited greatly from computer access.

Thanks. This was actually exactly what I was looking for. (Also, I too grew up on the TI-99/4a).