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YouTube has become the world's nanny

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Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#111

Post by rTX5CMRXIfFG »

a4a4a4a4 wrote: post #88
rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain how you are sure that the concern is limited to the age range that you specified? You make it sound like there’s just one way that kids can grow. It’s completely possible for kids to gain access to bad internet stuff at a far younger age and they could carry it with them for a long time.

You will never be _sure_ that it's limited to that age range, because what's appropriate for a given age is pretty subjective. I don't know why people are obsessed with making perfectly isolated bubbles for kids, it's just not possible.

Because internet consumption has addictive properties that can negatively impact the cognitive development of a child regardless of age range? Gosh, I feel so irresponsible for intervening with the kind of information that children consume. Perhaps it’s better I expose them to alcohol and drugs sooner than later!

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#112

Post by passwordoops »

alxmng wrote: post #102
passwordoops wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Curating content and setting limits on screen time is your job as a parent in this era. This, 100%! We're at the point where the tablet is for podcasts, and we can watch instructional videos with a specific topic in mind (e.g. tips on drawing anime characters). And that's it. It's been a month and we saw a noticeable change literally overnight in quality and amount of sleep, quality of conversation, and the child is…

What age are you talking about?

9-11

To be clear, we were strict up until the pandemic when we let things slide. Then all the friends were on messenger and if that's the only source of socializing, well ok. We didn't have YT on the tablet, but through ad clicking she discovered it would sometimes open in the browser, then she just figured out how the browser works.

I'd say there was close to a year of virtually unfettered access, up to 2 hours a day, always simultaneously with Messenger Kids for chatting/calling friends.

Cutting off was tough, but it happened over the holidays so we all took a full digital diet, and it gave the opportunity to gently introduce the concept of addiction

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#113

Post by quickthrower2 »

fragmede wrote: post #83
i67vw3 wrote: post #55

Two of my sisters have in total 3 kids (4 to 6 years old) and all three of them need to watch youtube videos while eating. Just few days back, my sister had a 'gathering' to announce her 2nd child (making it total 4 kids combined) and the 3rd kid needed to watch few youtube videos (usually they are of other kids playing or doing some stuff) to eat his dinner, which I found quite odd. This thing is not only related to…

The "solution" is to not expose them to YouTube in the first place. Worked so far, for several families I know.

And/or be “the bad guy” who implements rules and limits

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#114

Post by arcturus17 »

boppo1 wrote: post #54
arcturus17 wrote: post #14

Yea I don’t have kids but I’ve seen it with all kids in my extended family. I like Youtube, there is content of tremendous value, for knowledge and entertainment. However, one thing I’ve personally observed is that too much of it can destroy your focus and motivation. There is some science in there about brain chemistry and reward systems, in line with what some pop scientists with Cal Newport and Andrew Huberman are…

I started using bottomless digital wells at 9 years old and it has led to compulsive browsing behavior with severely negative long-term consequences for my life.

> it has led to compulsive browsing behavior with severely negative long-term consequences for my life

If I can offer practical advice that has worked for me in pulling me back from bad browsing habits:

1. Meditate ~10min every morning

2. Start a reading habit, even if it's modest (start with 10 pages a day)

3. Create physical barriers between you and devices:

3.1. Do not sleep with a device in the room (if you use it as an alarm clock buy an analog one)

3.2. Physically remove non-indispensable devices (TV, console, any extra screens) from around you, if only temporarily (put them in storage, give them to a friend for keeping)

4. Write a to-do list with objectives for the next day in the evenings, then revise it in the mornings after waking up

5. Pick up some exercise, preferrably with a social obligation (ie, an instructor, a group). The latter may be important because as an experienced weightlifter I can say that it's way too easy to do solo sessions where you're constantly slacking around and looking at your phone.

6. Quit other vices (eg, drinking) temporarily

Many of these have nothing to do with browsing, but that's precisely what does it for me. Artificially limiting browsing (by using apps, timeboxing, etc.) does not work at all for me and I need to work on adjacent goals to build my chemistry back up.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#115

Post by simiones »

878654Tom wrote: post #66
blitzar wrote: post #60

To my grandparents / great grandparents generation at the time (70/80's) TV has become the world's nanny would have generated all the same comments as this. If you watched tv - the idiotbox - for more than 15 minutes your eyes would go square.

That is simply not true, with television you also had the panic of "brain rot" but at least you could still trust public television networks with not showing dubious content. Youtube for kids seems to be a rabbithole place where you end up with "Spiderman kisses Anna", very obvious advertisements or very trippy shows while on public television you had kid shows with educative touch on them (a visit to the forest, chi…

Cartoon Network for example has always had advertising aimed at children, and some shows that definitely was considered dubious in my household growing up (in far away Romania), such as Cow and Chicken and that show's obsession with butts. And there was generally no educative touch to these shows, they were mostly interested in children's entertainment. The same was true for most cartoon shows I saw growing up - they usually didn't contain explicitly educational content, though of course they were incomparable in quality to things like the spam on YT Kids.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#116

Post by quickthrower2 »

theshrike79 wrote: post #3

Nope, nope nope. My kid is 10 and still doesn't know a single Youtuber by name and doesn't really watch Youtube. We did try Youtube Kids at one point, but it was just 99% toy ads masquerading as authentic content. Netflix has a pretty good age limiter and well produced TV-shows. Disney+ has Bluey and a ton of other content. AppleTV+ has a few good ones too, but not as much as the two big ones. Paying the few coins fo…

The irony of the “gate” postfix, being such an old concept!

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#117

Post by simiones »

tazjin wrote: post #77
878654Tom wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is simply not true, with television you also had the panic of "brain rot" but at least you could still trust public television networks with not showing dubious content. Youtube for kids seems to be a rabbithole place where you end up with "Spiderman kisses Anna", very obvious advertisements or very trippy shows while on public television you had kid shows with educative touch on them (a visit to the forest, chi…

The other difference is that with public TV there will be moments where it shows stuff the kids couldn't care less about, and they'll go do something else. With limitless online streaming, there is always something to keep their attention.

There were plenty of cartoon-only and kids-only TV channels when I was growing up. Of course, I sometimes got bored of the shows, but kids also sometimes get bored of YT.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#119

Post by rTX5CMRXIfFG »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #99
rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why is YT necessary? Couldn’t you have given your kids access to a more curated and education-dedicated video platform instead? Heck, even Disney+ sounds better here.

> despite not having a good mechanistic explanation for why YT is OK even at small dosages Do you have an explanation for YT is NOT ok even at small dosages?

Did we miss out on all of the HN articles and studies about how socmed consumption negatively impacts people’s levels of happiness, self-esteem, and ability to focus, and have we no experience of it?

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#120

Post by onlypositive »

swimf wrote: post #70
arcturus17 wrote: post #14

Yea I don’t have kids but I’ve seen it with all kids in my extended family. I like Youtube, there is content of tremendous value, for knowledge and entertainment. However, one thing I’ve personally observed is that too much of it can destroy your focus and motivation. There is some science in there about brain chemistry and reward systems, in line with what some pop scientists with Cal Newport and Andrew Huberman are…

I've never admitted this online but screw it. I've been a drug user for about 2/3 my live. Battled with prescription pills the longest.. managed to kick the habit with meth. YouTube is as addictive as anything i just mentioned. More so if you're in a group testing future services in return for an "ad free" experience (you know the ones which claim to"improve Google services"). Everything else everyone has said is tru…

ublock blocks YouTube ads.

One way I manage the addictive problem with YouTube is to heavily use the do not recommend channel feature when I find something garbage or unproductive.

Here in Australia the govt forces YouTube to surface local (read: Murdoch) news channels in the home page despite them all being mostly hated and consistently downvoted by me (no way any recommendation system would continue to recommend me their stuff).

Thankfully, you can "not recommend" those channels and the whole "news" section goes away. You can still search "news" when you want to see it but tbh I hardly ever do unless I hear something is going on that I'm concerned about.

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