Kids don't know what yoyos are!!!

General Yo-Yo
1

Quick note, but I’m so surprised and honestly frightened by this!

I’m standing in a long…slow moving…angsty line of people for the checkout here at Best buy (yes I am one of those early morning black Friday deal hunters. I go with friends so don’t judge me!) And there is a family behind me with two young sons, probably age 7 and 8 I would estimate.
The older son noticed my Shu-ta on my yoyo holder by my side and asked his father what that was.
“Its a yoyo” the father told him. “What’s a yo…yo?” The son asked.

What’s a yoyo? Instantly I took out the throw and showed this young boy a quick trick and explained briefly how the toy works. He watched mesmerized for a bit while his father commented his “see? Look look! That’s how it works, you do tricks with it.”

The boy than asked. “Why would you do that?”
The question was a bit odd to me, but of course my simple answer was a quick: “its fun!”

This was something that just really stuck with me. Do kids today really not know what a yoyo is? Is the yoyo just something that isn’t exposed to young children anymore? Even before knowing about professional yoyoing, I still remember being a tiny kid in 1st grade and knowing that such a thing as a yoyo existed. And I feel that for most people that was the case. But to absolutely be unaware such a toy exist?

Very surprising and kind of sad :frowning:

2

Well, you know yoyos are a dangerous toy. They have that string on them that some kid could strangle himself with. Or swing it around by the string and knock his dad’s teef out… :wink:

3

I don’t know of any yoyo apple/android apps so it shouldn’t come a surprise kids these days don’t know

4

Ah Man! That’s really sad! All my friends and I played with yoyo’s when we were kids. Kids these days are missing out on a lot of really good stuff. They are turning into zombies. When my nephew was 2 he was bossing temple run on my sisters iphone. :expressionless: TWO YEARS OLD! They basically let the tablets and tv raise him and my niece and it really upsets me :(. When I was a kid I had yoyo’s, my game boy, fishing, bikes, and dirt clauds that we used as dirt “grenades” to defend our club houses/ bases from “intruders” lol. We used our imaginations to do things like making corridors through 6.5-7 foot high fields of weeds, bike races, heck even foot races, & trading cards. We also gained really cool memories like stepping on a fat snake while fishing and running for your life. Kids just don’t get to enjoy good times like that anymore. :’(

5

:’( :’( :’(

This is very surprising. I am a kid (12) and I always got yoyo party favors. Maybe this is just a rare case.

6

I feel like the yoyo has been lost in obscurity. When was the last time you saw yoyos in a big box store like Walmart (besides the Duncans sitting with the cheap toys that nobody buys)? Kids these days are driven by media…be it video games or TV. If kids saw yoyoing on TV or in mainstream media, they might catch on.

I had a similar situation when I was at the amusement park this summer. In line roasting in the sun, I was playing my Yeti when a kid says “Ooh, dad, look! What is that?” The dad informed him that it was a yoyo. The kid’s next response was “ooh, I want a yoyo!” To be fair, the kid was young. But being as he was in his early stages of life, his mind is still developing and has not turned into a complete zombie and ask “why on earth would one want to do tricks with a toy.” Fortunately I haven’t run into anyone completely brain-dead but got close. When I was at the ripe age of 4 I knew what a yoyo was. Seemed like even though not high tech at the time, yoyos were just as iconic as Hotwhels cars, Legos, Play-Doh, Etch-a-SKetch, and Slinky. Now, it seems like yoyos are things you can only purchase at specialty stores.

7

I’ve hit my own self in the mouth, don’t need my kids help!

8

I think the kid didn’t recognize it because the Shu-ta is a very weird shape compared to what most people view as a yoyo - a Duncan Imperial or Butterfly. Re-reading it though, it seems that he totally hadn’t heard of it before. THAT is pretty crazy.

9

Curious…

What is frightening? Why is it sad that a few kids aren’t aware of every toy currently known to exist?

Seriously, the majority of people on the entire planet Earth ‘will never even touch a yoyo in their entire life; even if they lived to be 100 years old’.

Curiousity #2 Did you happen to mention to them to just Google the word ‘yoyo’? Or go to You tube and type in Yoyo tricks. Or suggest visiting Yoyoexpert.com?

Or did you just leave Bestbuy frightened and sad?

…Helpful hint for future emotionally traumatic experiences > This is what I do.

Every single time I buy something from Yoyoexpert, they include an index card with the Yoyoexpert site name and tricks list and steps to learn… Etc. I always take at least one card with me… Pretty much everywhere. I Always have several of the cards in my Tacoma or my BMW.

If I don’t give em a demo and a speech, I at least leave them with enough information to head them in the correct direction.

Most kids I run into seem to have a better cell phone than me, lol. So if they really seem interested, I hand them a card and ask them, ‘Pull this site up on your phone, just in case you lose this card before you get home’.

… One of the replies in this thread suggested there are no yoyo apps so no surprise?

There is a New Yoyo app for Andriod devices and San for Apple devices. It has over 700 Tuts and yoyo tricks, etc.

It’s called Yoyotuts. < simple enough in the Google play store

Knowledge is Power. I don’t Preach about yoyos, but I Never miss an opportunity to let people know where to find ‘the information’ they may find useful.

The Yoyoexpert Trick card that comes with every order is a Key to a door to fun. Handing it to somebody gives them a Portal to their next adventure. And even if they lose it; somebody else may pick it up and end up on the Learn Site.

The card even has a little ‘Scan to learn more’ tag on it.

…What I personally find frightening is when I am driving down the road and see a 7 year old skateboarding down the wrong side of the street; text messaging with his thumb on one hand and smoking a cigarette with the other. With an iPod in his top pocket and buds in his ears. Cutting right in from of me, completely Oblivious that I almost turned him into a skating pancake.

That is the stuff that is frightening and sad to me…

2 Likes
10

You seriously need to go to an Oxygen Bar and air up, lol.

‘The Shuta is a very weird shape compared to what Most People view as a yoyo’?

Aren’t Most yoyos kinda round with a string in the middle?

Like… a Duncan, even? Lol

If the kid didn’t even know what a yoyo was, why would the shape stand out as different from something else he has never seen before?

Wouldn’t that be like saying, ’ I have never seen a Coconut before but that doesn’t look like one to me’?

Make note… Thinking caps as popular stocking stuffers this year.

Done

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11

Of course I wasn’t truly traumatized and no I didnt leave best buy white as a ghost holding a new flat screen ;D

And I did mention to the father to look up yoyotricks website actually if his son wanted to learn a bit more on what I was doing. :wink:

I suppose times have just changed. Where as I grew up in the age where you learned what a yoyo was as soon as you learned the letter “Y”, these days perhaps kids will learn Y as “youtube”

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12

I get that you’re trying to help - and you did. I’ll think through my comments more.
However, I think there are better ways to teach somebody to think more. The educational part such as the coconut analogy and the paragraph before that was very helpful, but opening up with “You seriously need to go to an Oxygen Bar and air up, lol” isn’t the best idea. Some people can be offended easily, so trying to be more friendly when teaching someone would help prevent forum arguments.

I wasn’t offended, by the way ;D

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13

People that are ‘too easily offended’ are too easily offended and that is a personal problem they have to cope with.

I ‘knew’ that ‘you’ wouldn’t be offended, so I had no reservations about my suggestion to you.

I clown around with everybody. You are not on my exception list.

Hey, some people cry when you hand them money, lol.

How people say things is obviously important. But often how people ‘take thing in’ can be a real can of worms.

I work in South Central Los Angeles… At night, where the bullets and switchblades meet. Sometimes I fail to recognize that I am just used to dealing with a harder crowd, haha.

Your suggestion is welcome but since I actually used to teach people how to think; at 64, I think it may be a little late in the game for you to suggest how I present my words.

I would speak no different in person. If you and I were hanging out at a yoyo contest and you clocked yourself in the head with a yoyo because your brain was gelling out from seeing the girl walk by with the low cut tshirt, I might say, ’ Homie… I think you need some Oxygen’!

Everybody would laugh and nobody would be offended.

You just don’t know me. I clowned around so much in school that they made my Home Room Counselors Office?

Thin skinned people need more exposed to the real World. Because when they leave their parents, they have to confront a new reality. And it is a pretty shocking thing for those ‘who are easily offended’.

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15

DOGS, you have a very sharp Wit and an excellent sense of Humor.

I can Appreciate that.

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16

LOLOL its actually beginning to become very amusing and funny how every single one of yoyodoc’s posts is part of a stupid argument. Every time I see his username and his long post of unnecessary quarreling responses I just laugh at how someone would use their time to argue against someone on a yoyo forum. Its really funny actually. Can he ever just make a normal post? gosh…

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His most recent post…

18

Please don’t ruin Connors flow…

He is the current posterboy for yoyodoc haters.

The more he whines the better I like it.

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I see old people (my age) that dont know what yoyos are. I have a pile of “store throws” for people to try at the hobby shop I work at, and i hear at least once a week “What are THOSE things?”

as a funny addition to really drive their ignorance home, ive had TWO people as me if (and I quote!)
“That thing 'lectric or whut?”

20

(Please read this in a happy understanding tone, as that is what it was written in.)

If you fail to grab the GEMS in yoyodoc’s posts, then you are truly missing out on some great content.

The man just gave you the perfect guide to introducing your hobby to others. Read it, and stop displaying the behavior you apparently dislike so much. I’ve quoted it below for you.

This is really helpful stuff. Having a negative experience with someone can completely jade how you perceive their actions. It’s always good to treat each situation as it’s own. Perpetuating negativity online is a simple trap to fall into. Don’t!

Read up and soak up the knowledge!