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I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

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Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#221

Post by vpribish »

Noos wrote: post #165

"As its use has proliferated, so has its effects... ...the interviewer, apparently, asks young people (age 18 to 22 years old) the following: whether men with the (device hidden) are human or not; whether they are losing contact with reality; whether the relation between eyes and ears is changing radically, whether they are psychotic or schizophrenic; whether they are worried about the fate of humanity." Can you gues…

moral panic gets the attention the author craves. it amazes how THAT is such a constant. even on this site, the comments are rife with people forgetting their sense of perspective, history, and human nature and tying themselves in anxious knots over the threat of from this frankenstein technology.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#222

Post by grzm »

bashinator wrote: post #218
Fogest wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they not get car sick from reading books while driving? I remember as a kid on long car trips I would try and read but I'd always feel sick from it, however I was fine watching movies on a portable DVD player.

Dunno why you're being downvoted - as a kid I was an avid reader. I could not read on our long car trips to visit relatives - instant nausea.

Speculation, but I suspect the down vote is due to the first sentence "Do they not get car sick from reading books while driving?" It assumes that that everyone gets sick as they do, and doesn't give their parent the benefit of the doubt that what they commented was wholly accurate.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#223

Post by hiisukun »

When I was growing up, I used to read quite a lot. I wasn't allowed to bring my book to the dinner table - no matter how suspenseful the chapter or how fascinating the subject. Of course my childhood wasn't perfect; every night wasn't a talkative social family dinner. I appreciated the rule even back then, though I wanted to read my book it was easy to see that me doing so was taking something away from the other people at the table. A little intangible, but quite clear.

I can't help but wonder if in the many countries & cultures, and across many generations, what various expectations there are for family time together, and what challenges and barriers were in the way. "No lens polishing at the dinner table!" might have been said to some young astronomer hundreds of years ago.

Mobile phones are a great source of information (something I've been fascinated with my whole life), but sometimes seem to replace rather than supplement social interactions. While I can see why people would want a "tech free dinner", I've also had the joy of a "facetime dinner" with friend's grandchildren who live far away. It was a wonderful and natural thing for the child involved, because it added to the social harmony, rather than isolating parts of it.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#224

Post by PhasmaFelis »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #180
careersuicide wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the one thing about technology I'm old fashioned about (I roll my eyes hard when people say stuff like "You should delete your Facebook account, you'll be better off."). If I'm eating food with someone else the phone goes away. The only exception is if in the course of conversation an easily googleable question is asked and both the other person/people and I are actually interested in the answer inste…

>(I roll my eyes hard when people say stuff like "You should delete your Facebook account, you'll be better off.") Your mortgage might be more expensive than it should be because of your facebook account. https://www.ft.com/content/e8ccd7b8-6459-11e6-a08a-c7ac04ef0... If the cost of your home increases by $10,000 in extra interest over the lifespan of the mortgage due to things your friends post on your facebook wall…

So set your account to friends-only. It's easy and you should be doing it anyway.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#225

Post by TomMarius »

Nition wrote: post #197
mixmastamyk wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people like background noise, not a fan myself.

If pure background noise is the goal, a radio would waste a lot less electricity.

You're of course true, but nowadays the consumption of a TV isn't that tragic.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#226

Post by knz »

sn9 wrote: post #220
Noos wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just nostalgia talking. Most of 80's and 90's kid programming was trash, too.

Speaking as someone who grew up without cable in the 90s, there was a ton of great content in that era and the quality took a huge hit in the 2000s and later. We had shows like X-Men which tackled issues like racism and prejudice, Captain Planet which tackled pollution and environmental stewardship, shows like Gargoyles that introduced mythology and Shakespeare and treated kids like intelligent human beings, Animania…

And kids today have shows like Daniel Tiger, Wild Kratts, SciGirls, Octonauts, Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, new Sesame Street, Word Girl, and access to the entire catalog of many of the shows you mentioned. They also have far greater access to educational content about science etc via YouTube than most kids had in the 80's/90's.

Good content is still being made, the parents just have to choose to consume it!

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#227

Post by observation »

patejam wrote: post #167
artursapek wrote: post #15

For people like me who think smart phones ruin everything, I suggest looking into Waldorf education for your kids. Smart phones are banned at the school (until high school) and screen-oriented media (phones, TV, movies) are strongly discouraged outside of school. In my opinion the system attracts really interesting adults and kids who still know how to enjoy life the old fashioned way.

Do you see no benefit in knowing pop culture? It's hugely important for socializing in the real world, and socializing is one of the main points of life. I'd even say I was stunted socially early on for not participating in much pop culture. Sports and music were important even all the way back in elementary school.

That's not really the problem though is it?

The threat is becoming another pondskipper on the ocean of human experience.

When you know 40-something people who've spent their entire existence revolving around popular culture, you know somebody with no opinions or ideas or feelings the box on the wall didn't package and deliver to them.

It's important to be able to relate to other people, but when so many people are consumed by something, religion, politics, 'popular culture', then I think it is fair to wonder why you'd want to relate to that, they look a lot like dead ends.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#228

Post by AndrewKemendo »

Noos wrote: post #165

"As its use has proliferated, so has its effects... ...the interviewer, apparently, asks young people (age 18 to 22 years old) the following: whether men with the (device hidden) are human or not; whether they are losing contact with reality; whether the relation between eyes and ears is changing radically, whether they are psychotic or schizophrenic; whether they are worried about the fate of humanity." Can you gues…

That is funny because I distinctly remember my grandmother getting mad at me as a teenager because I wore my walkman when we went to the grocery store. She said it was rude.

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#229

Post by [deleted] »

artursapek wrote: post #17
rayiner wrote: post #4

It's a level-headed article. Parenting, like almost nothing else, turns normal, intelligent, educated people into nutters. A rational, evidence-based conversation about screen time, breastfeeding, pregnancy, birth, education, and diet is increasingly impossible to have, especially with millennial parents. I just got my four year old an iPhone (with a data plan, because she realized she didn't have wifi in the car). I…

You're doing your daughter a disservice.

[deleted]

Re: I spent my career in tech, but wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids

#230

Post by nitwit005 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #50
citizenkeen wrote: post #7

'One of my favorite things you can do is plan a “device-free dinner.”' _A_ device free dinner? Why aren't all of them? These weird little "small gestures" make me feel like people have lost control of their homes. We have a landline expressly to give out to emergency contacts. And dinner is tech free. Every night. I think the main problem is tech has made everything _else_ easier, but parenting harder, and parents ju…

I agree but some of these things sound like moral panics about black rectangles. I don't remember people shaking their heads at parents reading a paperback book at the park, or commuters reading broadsheet newspapers on the train.

When cheap fiction novels became popular, there was a similar concern that young people were staying inside and reading instead of going outside.

There has never been an era where parents failed to find fault in young people's behavior.

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