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The Slackification of the American Home

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#41

Post by fwip »

paxys wrote: post #25

Every family in the world uses IM, and Slack isn't very different from any of the hundred other options out there for group messaging. So not too surprising that families are using it. Similarly all the other software mentioned can be used for simple calendaring, TODO lists, reminders etc., all of which most people here undoubtedly use in some form to manage their life. It's just the association of these brands with…

A lot of families don't even have texting, let alone IM each other regularly on their personal computing devices.

Please don't generalize your experiences so recklessly.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#42

Post by celim307 »

rusteh1 wrote: post #34

What does it say about us as a society in which a pre-high school child needs to use a productivity suite to manage their lives? The answer here is not to provide more software to allow 11 year olds to eek out a few extra percentage points of productivity. The answer is to expect less of 11 year olds.

My cousin is raising 2 kids in a major urban center. Discussions of what pre-K they needed to prepare for starts around the time they are able to independently walk. Social calanders are decided weeks in advance. Play dates are heavily documented on social media and 'bucket-lists' of rites of passage such as photo session at a historical landmark, baseball stadium, etc are turned into holiday cards. My cousin might be an outlier, she is an incredibly driven business woman who juggles a full time lucrative career with family life, but I can't imagine her lifestyle is worth the stress. As far as I can remember the kids have always been dressed in coordinated outfits, hats, vests, capes, etc.

She is definitely a loving mother and cares the worlds for her kids, but I feel incredibly uneasy if this becomes the new norm for kids to succeed in our society.

This is not objective but my brother in law's extended family lives in the suburbs far from a much smaller metro area, spend their time primarily outdoors lightly supervised, and to me are far more confident, articulate, and fun kids.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#44

Post by garmaine »

coderintherye wrote: post #24
tempsy wrote: post #6

Something I’m trying to get better at is to be more intentional about everything e.g. I think I’ve come to the realization that I’ve wasted a lot of time and spent time doing things I shouldn’t be doing because I allowed myself to “drift” in ways that don’t help me at all. I do not have a family or kids, but anything that helps families be more intentional with how they spend time with each other is a really good thi…

Tools are helpful for being intentional, but so is instruction. Regular meditation and listening to buddhist instructors can help you along this path. If your intention is to get better at being more intentional, then you are already halfway there!

We shouldn’t need religion for this.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#45

Post by j7ake »

m_mueller wrote: post #36

People, please, think about what you want your children to become. Do you want easily employed drones that just as easily can get outsourced or replaced by AI, or do you want independent and creative thinkers? Creativity needs space and time. Extend both increasingly, with age. It's sad to me that American life requires you to manage their time - elsewhere they can just independently go to school, first on foot then…

I think parents want their children to be able to have a career that will allow their children to have the economic resources to navigate modern society (pay for university, home, provide for family).

Creativity and independence in thinking comes second.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#47

Post by avip »

celim307 wrote: post #42
rusteh1 wrote: post #34

What does it say about us as a society in which a pre-high school child needs to use a productivity suite to manage their lives? The answer here is not to provide more software to allow 11 year olds to eek out a few extra percentage points of productivity. The answer is to expect less of 11 year olds.

My cousin is raising 2 kids in a major urban center. Discussions of what pre-K they needed to prepare for starts around the time they are able to independently walk. Social calanders are decided weeks in advance. Play dates are heavily documented on social media and 'bucket-lists' of rites of passage such as photo session at a historical landmark, baseball stadium, etc are turned into holiday cards. My cousin might b…

I don't think that's a very subjective observation. It's really challenging to let urban kids be unsupervised (and, in some places - it's borderline illegal)

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#48

Post by megabl8 »

djaychela wrote: post #35
rusteh1 wrote: post #34

What does it say about us as a society in which a pre-high school child needs to use a productivity suite to manage their lives? The answer here is not to provide more software to allow 11 year olds to eek out a few extra percentage points of productivity. The answer is to expect less of 11 year olds.

My kids' school has just been taken over (in the UK) by an academy group whose other local schools were telling 8 and 9 year old that they needed to know what career they were going to have so they could study the right subjects... I'm 47 and I still don't really know what I want to do with my life. How the hell does an 8 year old?

Is it a bad thing to get kids thinking about this? I mean, this is what they have to do when they select what subjects they want to do. This has happened all over the world for at least 30 years.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#49

Post by komali2 »

avip wrote: post #47
celim307 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cousin is raising 2 kids in a major urban center. Discussions of what pre-K they needed to prepare for starts around the time they are able to independently walk. Social calanders are decided weeks in advance. Play dates are heavily documented on social media and 'bucket-lists' of rites of passage such as photo session at a historical landmark, baseball stadium, etc are turned into holiday cards. My cousin might b…

I don't think that's a very subjective observation. It's really challenging to let urban kids be unsupervised (and, in some places - it's borderline illegal)

I mean, maybe? Walk around Brooklyn and you'll see tons of unsupervised kids. Seem to be doing fine to me.

Re: The Slackification of the American Home

#50

Post by _pmf_ »

m_mueller wrote: post #36

People, please, think about what you want your children to become. Do you want easily employed drones that just as easily can get outsourced or replaced by AI, or do you want independent and creative thinkers? Creativity needs space and time. Extend both increasingly, with age. It's sad to me that American life requires you to manage their time - elsewhere they can just independently go to school, first on foot then…

> do you want independent and creative thinkers

That's probably the worst you can do to a child. It's setting them up for unhappiness.

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