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YouTube has become the world's nanny

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Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#191

Post by pard68 »

Happy to say that I am a father of four and have no clue what CoComelon is. Our solution to "screen time" has been an hour of Sonic or Kirby on the weekend and educational-only videos during the week which have something to do with whatever they are talking about or learning that day.

For example, our kitchen has a number of large windows and the birds love to eat in front of it. My five year old has become obsessed with birds and specifically sparrows. My wife found a Youtube video about sparrows, it was a powerpoint with voice-over, and the kids ate that up.

I think that tech and especially videos/games can be very dangerous. I wasted days of my life in grade school playing Halo 2 and later GTA and COD. I wish that my parents had attempted to restrict my time. I also think tech can be really useful for parents to help teach beyond their skillset. Just the line you walk between this too is very tricky.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#192

Post by watwut »

jackvalentine wrote: post #166
jahsome wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most unbelievable thing about this site is to me the inability of users to recognize their language and aversion to, well, everything, is the same carbon copied rhetoric every generation has used to deride the technological Boogeyman of the day.

I take your point, but isn’t it possible that every generation was right because they feared that one day we’d go too far and weren’t sure if we were at that point yet? And one day, we may go too far. We might have already.

I think that some complains about new generations are valid others are not. And as I had own kids I realized that when parents or teachers see an issue, they talk about, comment on it and then try to fix the issue. So sometimes, the observation is actually correct, but it makes adults to work on fixing it and sometimes they succeed. Some generations are more violent then others, some generations have more substance abuse issues. All generations are adjusting to the world they live in.

Moreover, in every single time and generation, you had mix of adults who had many different opinions on generations. One guy writing on the wall at the ancient Rome does not even implies all that much about general opinion of people in Rome.

But, "youtube bad" is not even complain about generation.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#193

Post by prmoustache »

scotty79 wrote: post #129
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…

Eating is immensly boring and I hated it as a kid. I wish I had something to distract myself from the boredom of eating. Despite not having anything like that as a child I now, at 43, eat all my meals in front of a computer while gaming or watching or reading something.

> Eating is immensly boring and I hated it as a kid. I wish I had something to distract myself from the boredom of eating.

This is usually the time people use to have social multigenerationnal social interactions. Outside of weekends parents have stuff to do all day long, kids have to do their homework, then like to immerse in playing. Sometimes kids and parents spend sometime on a specific game, cards and board games are nice for that, but time is usually against them midweek. Meals and Dinner are those time when family member reconnect and chat. There is no reason to be bored unless your family is totally dysfunctionnal.

I would say even as a single adult, meal can be a perfect time to have that disconnected moment and just think for a little while. Maybe you should try it as an exercise if you don't have those moments in other times of the day.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#194

Post by watwut »

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #111
a4a4a4a4 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

You literally talk about "radicalized people and impacted the global political order". I dont worry 4 years old will do any of that.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#195

Post by gnz11 »

theshrike79 wrote: post #142
est wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but is there any better alternative?

Actual produced content, made by professionals who don't get paid per view or swag sales. Netflix and Disney+ have good content, you pay for it and they give you content. There is no parasocial relationship or algorithmic suggestions that direct the user to a dark hole of exploitative content. Most countries have a PBS equivalent, a non-commercial public broadcast channel that produces quality content without.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Netflix, Amazon, etc put out a ton of crap content too (e.g. Blippi). PBS Kids, KIKA, etc put out a lot of kids content on YouTube as well. Heck there’s a ton of great public media on YouTube in general. My subscription list is mostly public media from various countries and I don’t have the algorithm issues what most are describing here.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#196

Post by fma »

vermote wrote: post #178
HlessClaudesman wrote: post #59

As a parent, screen time vs no screen time is a fine line that we have to continually renegotiate. Screens can be great, there is so much good information out there that can enrich our lives. I wouldn't go the "no screens ever" route because that's just being a luddite, robbing them of the change to experience, and acquire expertise in, the digital world that they will be interacting with for the rest of their lives.…

Any recommendations on good pedagogical content channels/playlists on youtube?

Piggybacking off this, is there a way to allow only certain channels. Unless i missed it, even on YouTube kids I only have the option to block...and to my horror one day I let my kids watch the Peppa Pig official channel and find out later through YouTube recommendations they were watching some grown man playing with Peppa Pig toys.

Also, my eldest is 6 and already knows you can get to YouTube via browser -__-

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#197

Post by prmoustache »

e1g wrote: post #177
Jolter wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically correct! The best kind of correct.

Those silly parents, overreacting by dying, losing their jobs, and and not being available 100% during a generation-defining global crisis of confidence.

hmmm I was generally not that much available during confinment while the kids were kind of let on their own at home...

But there are so many things they did with just fabrics, colored papers, pencils, paint, glue, tape and things in general. I let my daughters on their own for hours without a screen. Sometimes they would complain about not knowing what to do and wanting to watch a show but when I give them hard no I perfectly knew I will find them hours later totally entertained having made a big mess in their room by building things, be them clothing for their puppets, decors for their figurines, cardboard swords and axes, building a giant lego construction, among other things.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#198

Post by gnz11 »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #187
theshrike79 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is good educational stuff on Youtube, but you need to actively look for it in the sea of shit. These two are in my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/@dianxixiaoge https://www.youtube.com/@cnliziqi Liziqi had some issues with her production company and stopped doing new videos, and her stuff was WAY too cutesy to be real. Dianxi is more "authentic", but still relaxing to watch.

Yeah the point is that a young child is not going to “actively look” - they just follow the trail of candy until they end up in the witches’ house :(

That goes back to curation and oversight by the parents though.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#199

Post by watwut »

ChewFarceSkunk wrote: post #189
watwut wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, my kids liked music videos like these a lot. And lol, this one is practically prison break. Part of what drives huge view numbers tho is that small kids like to watch the same thing again and again and again. Easily, one kid can account for 1000 of views over few months. That is why stuff like "10 hours same song" exists.

People not seeing anything sinister in these infinite loops of "content" are baffling me. These loops, the very loopy quality of those things get burned into infant subconscious, and that's no small deal. I once watched my nephew, 3 yo, having what I can best describe as a psychotic breakdown, hysterically crying out the same word, 'cartoon', interleaved with convulsive grasping for air, every few seconds for an hour…

3 years old having temper tamptrumps were thing long before TV and youtube. I know, because books written long before that feature kids having hysterical temper tamptrums. And I assume so because I have seen kids aged 2-4 having issue like that and know for a fact that their parents did not run them loop videos (or any videos at all).

> Imagine YT going instantly offline worldwide, what would happen to all those poor little cartoon burnouts?

They will cry for a while and then they will adjust to the new world.

> and nobody, including his mom, my sister, who spinelessly managed to outsource his upbringing to YT, could pull him out of that loop

I dont know your sister. I dont know whether she always give in or whether she was not in mood for listening it or whether she specifically gave him video so that your visit can continue as normal.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#200

Post by prmoustache »

gambiting wrote: post #15
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…

>>My kid is 10 and still doesn't know a single Youtuber by name Authentic curiosity - does your child not go to a normal school? In my experience you can literally detach your home from the internet and live without electricity, but the second your kids go to school they instantly know all the latest fads and videos and what not. To make it to 10 without being at least somewhat familiar with youtube through that expo…

My kids know about youtube but that doesn't mean they are lost in it.

If anything they'd rather watch the harry potter series 100x times before asking for generic youtube access.

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