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YouTube has become the world's nanny

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Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#311
post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I find the concept of drinking beer with a meal disgusting on multiple levels. As a kid I hated when adults were drinking alcohol in my presence. They got even louder and dumber than usual after drinking.

It looks like you have unresolved issues (trauma?) from being around alcoholics or people with lack of self control. But I don't. One beer with a meal is not "disgusting" and does not significantly impair an adult either.

It just disgusts me personally. There's probably a lot of factors involved. But there's no such thing as a safe dose of alcohol. Especially ingested routinely.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time spent reading = 2x amount received in screen time works for us. Books (comic books count) have no screen time, neither have any kinds of crafts or other interactive things. Games are more OK in my mind than just passively staring at someone open surprise eggs on Youtube or watching a "let's play" of some game or a "influencer reacts to X" crapfest. Thus we have a separate more generous screen time set for games…

We do something similar and cap the time on screens. Also, if the kids start showing signs of wanting screens too much, we refocus them on something else- sometimes for several days or more. When they ask why, we remind them that screens are a tool for us to use, not the other way around-- and it's time to take a break. In fairness, we do this for anything they get overly attached to that could be harmful in excess.

I hope you're also a role model for this. Do you take multi-day breaks from screens, and take care to avoid wanting screens too much?

I'm spending most of my leisure time in front of a screen. Explaining to my children why it's OK for me and not for them would be the hardest part for me.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#313

The way children scream for my tablet time worse than they would for a bottle is terrifying. All those dopamine manipulation techniques made for adults are cleaning up with kids.

The way these adults scream out long disproven neuroscience old wive's tales to justify their beliefs is terrifying. All these passive stimuli coming through your normal senses are not in any way hijacking or directly manipulating incentive salience or motivation. They're not drugs. Screen displays do not have the properties of drugs no matter what is displayed on them . Arguing that they do is ignorant and dangerous…

Looks like at this time the screen has triggered quite an emotional (probably irrational) response.

Besides your point is nonsense.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#314
It's a great nanny for adults too. I love getting lost in it whenenever I have time to burn. Audiobooks. Music albums. Weird science channels. Memes. Standup Comedy. Old foreign movies. Podcasts.

It's the eighth wonder of the world if you ask me. I'm a happy paying user and have been for years.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's one huge difference. TV gets boring, fast. The only time it would remain remotely entertaining was Saturday morning. And even that would get boring relatively quickly. And so you end up turning to other things to entertain yourself, or just be bored. Both of which are probably much better for one's development. YouTube can probably provide entertainment to a child for an arbitrary length of time, on d…

What? Youtube is exactly like television. The only significant difference is that it includes a comment section where people can interact. I don't think that makes it worse. And it is certainly not analogous to drugs. Trying to compare the stimuli of looking at a screen is entirely different from taking drugs that bypass your senses completely to hijack the neuronal populations which determine the salience and motiva…

Youtube Kids disables all comments, and algorithmic recommendations. What they're recommended is 'kids' content maybe based on age. This is roughly the level of demographic targeting for broadcast television.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#316

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.…

I created a site, Smart Kid, that removes "Likes" from videos that meet the list of blocked keywords.

https://smartk.id/

Our younger kids were always very eager to "hit that like" button on every Minecraft video known to man, so this was attempt to mitigate that issue.

It may help a bit in diversifying your children's recommendations.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#317

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.…

I found that "screens after N pm" worked well for us. It created a zone where there was no consideration, expectation, or backsliding onto screens. We also kept a VERY consistent bedtime, so that "N pm" to just before bedtime rituals timeblocked screens. If you get on a screen at 4pm it can be hard to suggest putting the screen down to go outside or do something else.

Was that a "no screens after N pm" or a "screens only between N pm and bedtime" rule?

I can imagine the latter working well, but we never tried because we're worried about screen exposure close to bed time causing sleep issues (blue light, but also because content on screens seems to excite and energize kids somewhat) - we're already having way too much problem getting kids to sleep on a sensible schedule.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#318

And, TV was the baby sitter of the last three generations. The technologies aren't 1:1, but letting your kids passively consume video seems is just as popular as ever.

I think there's one huge difference. TV gets boring, fast. The only time it would remain remotely entertaining was Saturday morning. And even that would get boring relatively quickly. And so you end up turning to other things to entertain yourself, or just be bored. Both of which are probably much better for one's development. YouTube can probably provide entertainment to a child for an arbitrary length of time, on d…

TV may seem boring compared for those of us who have grown accustomed to consuming video over the internet, but a lot of older people just leave their television on all day. Maybe they're not glued to it the whole time, but it it's a constant din. I guess they're hoping something worthwhile may come on and they'll get a squirt of dopamine.

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this no answer your question about my child see me drinking beer? Or drinking coffee, if it's easier to not get distracted by the specific drink he's not allowed? My point was a bit unrelated to all this, so I'm just checking your original question's answered.

Yes. Thank you for the answer. Sorry for my curiosity. It was off topic.

Not at all - just checking!

Re: YouTube has become the world's nanny

#320
post #289
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curation is key and there need to be better tools. I strongly limit my kid's screen time, and was pleasantly surprised by the PBS kids video app (and to some extent the games app). I felt very comfortable leaving her alone with that at the designated screen times, as most programs had at least some educational component... or at least had some generic but positive moral lessons. And (key!) she gets personal choice in…

>Curation is key and there need to be better tools. It's annoying that Youtube, a flagship product for a massive multinational company, has worse curation and discovery than even a low tier porn site. Whoever is in charge of design/recommendations in YouTube is failing at their job

They're probably doing fine at their job. Building better tools for curation would be nearly antithetical to the goal of serving an endless stream of highest-bidder ad-supported content algorithmically chosen to keep a viewer engaged to maximize impression counts and duration.
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