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Wait Until 8th

waituntil8th.org

311–320 of 351 posts

Re: Wait Until 8th

#311
post #116

This is a bandaid on a bullet hole. The root issue is that tech leaders (yes, these decision-makers are real, individual people, let's stop diluting accountability!) have forced themselves onto us and our kids with tracking, data mining, personalised advertising, distortion of facts, dark patterns, addiction-forming products, plausible but false AI content, brand-compliance, and all sorts of other user exploitation.…

i agree but they deserve credit for running a reasonable campaign. Look how you're ridiculing them, and now imagine how much ridicule they would receive if the campaign was total abstinence from smart phones? Running a contrarian campaign is hard, especially given all of the status , social pressure and marketing surrounding smartphones.

I agree.

What I said may have come off as ridicule. This campaign is an important effort. I argue that we should have more such efforts, bigger efforts, and even alternative efforts to prevent people’s addiction to social media.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#312
post #260

> The Wait Until 8th pledge empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. For context, students in eighth grade (US) are usually 13–14 years old.

From a messaging point of view, “wait until 8th” and “until at least the end of 8th grade” may as well be a mile wide difference to kids at that age, and it’s unclear to parents who want to actually follow this guideline without reading all the particulars

Re: Wait Until 8th

#313

I'm still surprised the "dumb phone for kids" and "dumb watch with basic comms" markets are so underdeveloped (from my perspective). I would love my kids to have (a) gps tracking, (b) ability to send texts/calls to like 5 predefined numbers, (c) tell the time, and nothing else. But watches all seem to have games or weird gamified fitness trackers (Google's new fitbit for kids). Or they are super kid-ish, like bright…

Our friends basically locked down an old phone to just the apps they approve of. Their 8-year-old is home alone for about an hour after school, and they don't have a landline.

We plugged in an old phone to a wall outlet, and just keep it locked with a pin. It allows for emergency calls. There is almost always someone home, so we don't feel the need to allow our kids to call us.

Another set of friends trusts their 11-year-old with full access.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#314
post #265

I'm going to post the same comment I did last year when this showed up on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36207142 ), as checking the website it still seems to be true: Literally none of the evidence on the website's own "Why" page supports their suggestion: https://www.waituntil8th.org/why-wait All of the studies (bonus points for linking to news articles instead of directly to the studies) have something…

Sigh. Sometimes you don’t need 10 peer reviewed articles to just know when something is bad. Were you the guy in the 60s saying smoking was totally fine because studies? Sometimes you just know inhaling smoke everyday is probably not good for you. Smart phones for kids is not good. It’s really simple.

> Smart phones for kids is not good. It’s really simple.

The shape of the computer doesn't magically make it bad: It's what kids do that's the problem.

We took our kids tablets away because they weren't disengaging. But that's because they were into Youtube, which is highly addictive. If they were just using the tablets as e-readers, it would be a different story.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#315
I really had to reflect a bit on this site, and show it to other friends with kids, to come to the conclusion.

This is helicopter parenting. Specifically, the way that the pledge requires that kids share all passwords and only install approved apps.

Kids need a degree of independence that they've lost in how structured modern day youth has become. An important part of growing up is being exposed to people who have different ideas and beliefs than parents and extended family, and making decisions and having real consequences.

I think it's more important to talk to children about what they encounter in their day-to-day lives, and find out about their struggles. It's important to remind children that they can turn off their smartphone, or delete an account on a social media site, if it doesn't bring them joy. As parents, it's our duty to tell children that they have the choice, but not make that choice for them.

Re: Wait Until 8th

#316
post #11

After high school ended (2:30pm) most days I used to have some kind of club activity (2:30pm-3:30pm) and then hang out in the cafeteria or by the front of the school, waiting for a parent to pick me up on the way home from work (5pm). I had a dumb phone so I could stay in touch, and I could also walk home if I wanted (40min / no sidewalks / 35mph roads), but most of the time I just sat down and did homework and read…

I would've gone home, every day. And then I would've read, after I played hours of World of Warcraft ;-) Oh wait, that's what actually happened! But I agree and I don't want to bd young these days anymore.

Sorry for being old but playing wow is different from scrolling tiktok. If These were drugs, wow would be a weed kind of thing and tiktok and the other cancers would be crack cocaine. In my honest humble opinion ofc

Re: Wait Until 8th

#317
post #6
post #2

I applaud the initiative. I waited until the beginning of 7th and it was pretty hard, honestly. We don't give them free access to it, though (but ironically it's most valuable to ME for them to bring it to school).

The waiting was hard, or your child having the phone in 7th grade was hard?

lol, both?

everything is over text now, and excluding them from that was difficult

Re: Wait Until 8th

#318
post #2

I applaud the initiative. I waited until the beginning of 7th and it was pretty hard, honestly. We don't give them free access to it, though (but ironically it's most valuable to ME for them to bring it to school).

Why is it beneficial to you? Did you have a dumb phone before for calls/texts?

easier to see where they are and let them know things. Otherwise they are normally home so it doesn't benefit me for them to be on their phones

Re: Wait Until 8th

#319

I really had to reflect a bit on this site, and show it to other friends with kids, to come to the conclusion. This is helicopter parenting. Specifically, the way that the pledge requires that kids share all passwords and only install approved apps. Kids need a degree of independence that they've lost in how structured modern day youth has become. An important part of growing up is being exposed to people who have di…

[deleted]

Re: Wait Until 8th

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thread was about the title being click bait because it's vague and confusing. You took a hard left into "you don't care about the kids " territory and it has absolute nothing to do with what is being talked about here.

This is not clickbait, it’s like a movement with a catchy name so it sticks. You seem to be stuck with clickbait but at the same time you don’t understand what clickbait is.

This is not clickbait,

This is clickbait.

it’s like a movement with a catchy name so it sticks

No, it's a title with no information, because we're talking about the title.

You seem to be stuck with clickbait but at the same time you don’t understand what clickbait is.

No, you seem to not understand what clickbait is because you think it has to do with selling something directly, which is bizarre and not backed up by anything other than you claiming it.

An intentionally sensationalized, vague or misleading headline

https://copyposse.com/blog/clickbait-or-catchy-hook-how-to-w...

Explain to me how "Wait Until 8th" isn't intentionally vague. If you knew nothing else, what would the title tell you? Nothing. That's vague. There could be more information in the title but there isn't. That's intentional.

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