101–110 of 137 posts
I am obviously a bit early, as my oldest is only 7, but my wife and I decided to force ourselves to delay getting our kids (7 & 4) their own media device, such as an iPad and go straight to a laptop when it becomes a necessity in school. My 7 year old, with immense attention issues, is obsessed with reading and being creative, I could not imagine her being at her reading level if she had an iPad or some other form of…
In Germany kids get it at 13
My friends with young kids 3-11 all let their kids use iPads. All of the kids seem well adjusted, able to read (a worry I saw), etc. I have no idea what limits they have but the kids are social, they don't hide on their iPad when people visit but instead interact with the parent's friends. The point being, unlike lots of comments here, I haven't seen any evidence of ill effects of young kids have access to electronic…
that is not a surprise really. a happy child will prefer real life interaction while an unhappy child will try to hide somewhere.
I know many 90s kids that had a complete ban on video games at home, myself included. I am now pleasantly surprised that while I find many games impressive and can appreciate them as feats of engineering, art and game design… I don’t get a level of enjoyment out of them that would risk addiction or avoiding other life responsibilities. It’s never the first or even the top tenth choice of activity to do on a day off.…
Is this life or just existence?
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The Wikipedia definition isn't complete, otherwise Wikipedia itself is social media too. Basically nobody outside of HN would consider HN social media if they saw it.
> The Wikipedia definition isn't complete, otherwise Wikipedia itself is social media too. Actually, that's a decent point; it should probably add something about being primarily focused on the user interactions. That is, Wikipedia isn't social media, but I'd hesitate to say that the talk pages aren't. > Basically nobody outside of HN would consider HN social media if they saw it. And on that point we definitely disa…
Forums have been around longer than the WWW and are more about interacting with topics than with particular members. Some let you follow or PM someone, but that's not the primary function, and HN doesn't even have that. Some social sites have expanded to cover forum-like roles too, like Facebook (Pages).
But most people won't think that far. They'll see HN and say nah, this isn't social media.
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Keep it simple dude. All they get is a basic device with text/RCS and call capabilities. I would be okay with giving a kid just a smart watch. No social media or smart phones until 16 y/o. Also making sure kids have friends in their community is a plus. Involve them in school programs, help guide them as they find their interest. For love of god, don’t give your kid an unlocked iPad with YT/TT/FB/Twitch/kick.
It's very easy to say this if you're not a parent. Social media does some harm. Being socially excluded does far _more_ harm. Which starts to happen in middle school. So as a parent, you have three choices: 1. Deal with the emotional consequences of your kid being systematically excluded and having few/no friends. 2. Construct an alternative school/community with like-minded parents and kids. 3. Just give them the da…
I know many 90s kids that had a complete ban on video games at home, myself included. I am now pleasantly surprised that while I find many games impressive and can appreciate them as feats of engineering, art and game design… I don’t get a level of enjoyment out of them that would risk addiction or avoiding other life responsibilities. It’s never the first or even the top tenth choice of activity to do on a day off.…
> I may have lost out on many a great experience, but the amount of free time I’ve gained relative to many men my age is worth it to me. Is this life or just existence?
I don’t judge or look down on people who enjoy games, wine, golf or hard work, but I would be ashamed of myself if I were to mash CoD, drink excessively, take training for weekend-warrior triathlons too seriously or push myself to burnout and an early grave at a startup to the detriment of my personal relationships and responsibilities as a parent.
Given how widespread all of these behaviours are it’s certainly a risk, and it’s liberating to know that I’m highly unlikely to go down at least one of these paths.
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My kid is 7. He has a Linux desktop he can use whenever he wants with no internet access from his user account. My wife and I abandoned all social media and we’ll probably get him a dumb phone when the time comes. I’ve heard the stuff some of his friends with more internet permissive parents parrot from YouTube and stuff and honestly it’s frightening. As for the good stuff that’s actually out there, I download for co…
> My wife and I abandoned all social media ...I'm sorry, I have to point out, you're posting this on what is basically a social media site.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and the like (I don’t know of there’s something else new). The algorithmic crap where you’ll find AI generated videos of a fake Elon Musk taking to visit sense website or wherever the outrage du jour happens.
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My kid is 7. He has a Linux desktop he can use whenever he wants with no internet access from his user account. My wife and I abandoned all social media and we’ll probably get him a dumb phone when the time comes. I’ve heard the stuff some of his friends with more internet permissive parents parrot from YouTube and stuff and honestly it’s frightening. As for the good stuff that’s actually out there, I download for co…
If you do that, your kid won't fit in and will be a social outcast
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If you do that, your kid won't fit in and will be a social outcast
So either your kid gets infected by other kids, or it becomes a social outcast. Seems both are equality bad, I would even lean towards saying social outcast is less worse than being infected.
Also I never said I’ll never let him use the internet, but it’s not for 7 year olds.