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Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

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Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the biggest difference is the style of games. Switch games are much more comprehensive like Zelda. iPad games are geared towards button mashing and showing ads for other games that do the exact same thing. A switch game will be $30-60. An iPad game will be “free”. Subjecting your kids to advertising driven games which aim to have them play much as possible to drive revenues is noticeably different. I’ve taken awa…

I don't have kids so I haven't looked into it, but I assumed there would be more games with educational value on iOS than Nintendo. Is curating your kid's apps to only allow such games an option?

What's the point though?

The app store is 99% low quality garbage. Sure, you can spend your time and effort searching out the 4-5 high quality gems that may exist and configuring the ipad but it's 10x easier just to buy a Nintendo game and call it a day. Nintendo's first party games are almost always very fun, always high quality, ad free, and always(?) kid friendly. When you buy, for example, a Zelda, Mario, or Kirby title you know exactly what you are going to get. Not all entertainment needs to be "educational" and we are talking about entertainment here.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#103
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What opinion is expressed here? There's a vague implication of "this is unfounded" they cannot even be bothered to put in clear words, much less make a case for, while trying to make up for that by repetition. So it's not okay to "think of the children", ever, but let's play good Samaritan for what is nothing more than a meme because it's a "valid opinion". Got it.

The observation is that whenever kids fixate on some new activity, the previous generation will always become extremely suspicious that it's harmful. If this hasn't been borne out in the past, then we can't take those suspicions as much evidence that there's anything to worry about.

And in the past, sometimes it's been a problem and sometimes it has not. It stands to reason that as we hyper-optimize for attention seeking applications we might start making things that children cannot realistically resist.

Television deregulation in the US is the precedent here. Given the modest costs of these sorts of inquiries compared to the massive profits enjoyed by Apple, Google, Samsung et al, it seems like a reasonable use for corporate tax dollars is to be an advocate for the general populace and make assurances these products are not in fact harmful.

Why is this such a challenging idea? No one is saying, "These are proven bad." They're saying, "We should have a definition of bad and then validate it."

The idea that we're not even allowed to ask the question because it's offensive? Why, that's positively irrational.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#104
post #31

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Makes sense. Apple wants you to buy the phone, that's enough. Google needs you to use the phone, the more the better.

Sorry. But no, just buying the phone is not enough for Apple! If somebody would buy a iPhone and then rarely/never use it, then they would never or only in very long cycles buy a new iPhone...people also talk less about things they rarely use and it would therefore hurt brand awareness...and if you believe that Apples singular motivation to exist is to make more profit then that’s not a good thing! Armchair commenter…

I don't know that heavy use vs light use drives when they buy a new phone.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#105

1950's Can we have a study of Comic Book addiction in Children. 1960's Can we have a study of Television addiction in Children. 1970's Can we have a study of Dungeons and Dragons addiction in children 1980's Can we have a study of Console game addiction in Children. 1990's Can we have a study of Computer game addiction in Children. 2000's Can we have a study of Internet addiction in Children. 2010's Can we have a stu…

Funny, but I feel phone/Internet addiction in my own life. I don't need a study or concerned parents to know it's real, at least for some susceptible people.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#107
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry. But no, just buying the phone is not enough for Apple! If somebody would buy a iPhone and then rarely/never use it, then they would never or only in very long cycles buy a new iPhone...people also talk less about things they rarely use and it would therefore hurt brand awareness...and if you believe that Apples singular motivation to exist is to make more profit then that’s not a good thing! Armchair commenter…

I don't know that heavy use vs light use drives when they buy a new phone.

It most certainly does...it does for most if not all kind of products.

One example I have at hand is for mobile apps...not the best one in this context but here we go: Most users forget about a app if they haven’t used it in 7 days!

It’s not like they forget to use it, or forget they had it...they forget that it exits!

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with doing all of these studies? Aren't you glad we know about the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, UV light, radiation, too much sugar etc.?

If using a computer is addictive, what is the response? I am concerned with any action that takes a child's privacy or liberty from them. I haven't heard a proposed solution that does neither, and most do both. Someone with the absolute best intentions it's likely to take seriously harmful actions when privacy and liberty are disrespected.

My god, what if someone forced a child to eat their vegetables? Or read a book? Or clean their room?? What if someone said a kid can't go to their friend's late night unchaperoned party??

Real answer:

If using a computer is addictive, then parents and schools will manage kids' use of computers (most already do), and arm kids with that knowledge and help them learn to manage it themselves as they get older.

Sending a kid out into the world purposefully ignorant of risks they might face is a terrible idea. This is also why sex ed is important, BTW.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Limiting device usage electronically or physically is a far cry away from snooping on your kids’ browsing or messaging histories. As far as intrusions go, this is a level 0. As a kid, we were limited by technology, so no limits were needed (SMB just wasn’t that replayable, and the TI/99 was even worse). Perhaps the solution to creativity here is to simply give your kids older computers to play with.

I'm not really concerned about the time limit function. But the video also says that it gives you a "report" of how much time your kids are spending on each game, and I think that may go too far. Keep in mind that this isn't just about how good parents can misuse technology in raising their kids. I think people tend to think of "parents" as a group as something different from the individual parents they've actually e…

I really can't understand this comment, the homophobic dad just wouldn't buy my little pony in the first place.

Re: Apple shareholders push for study of phone addiction in children

#110

I think it's worth taking a look at the parental controls that Nintendo put in for the Switch. They have a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03bAayBtcb0 I think it's worth watching, if for no other reason than to see Bowser & Bowser Jr.. iOS app link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1190074407 Play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.z... For me, the only annoyance is th…

While there are obvious concerns about the effects of spending too much time playing video games, it doesn't seem like people are focusing much on the possible psychological impact of the kind of surveillance that modern technology affords parents. Kids need some privacy to explore and express themselves, and I'm worried that as we try to let parents take their natural risk aversion to further and further extremes, w…

The new Black Mirror season had an episode about this very concept called Arkangel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkangel_(Black_Mirror)

This episode explores some of the risks that monitoring and censoring children can have on their development and also the effect it can have on the parents themselves.

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