To all the people who don't see the problem, try and stay off the internet for 48 hours. No phone, no email-checking, no HN, no whatever. Try it. I dare you.
A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
161–170 of 516 posts
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#162The organization I work for, Common Sense Media, has done a good bit of research on screen time, addiction, and it's effect on families. Here is the report on Technology Addiction: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/technology-addicti... Here is our other research reports covering a wide range of media/technology topics effecting children, families and teachers: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research?page=1
Common Sense Media is great! I personally really appreciate the lists of educational apps, like https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/preschool-math-apps-g... . I strongly recommend that parents go through the educational apps on these lists and get ones that their kids find engaging.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
He never said these data scientists predicted the 6 year old brain and created the program accordingly. Just A/B testing and measuring what works best and what doesn't and progressively refining the product to match these findings is data science.
I'm already being downvoted, hopefully mostly for my tone rather than content, so by all rational means I should abandon this and go complain another day, but this really gets my goat. A/B testing and measuring -- are you kidding me? That's how you go from 35% conversion to 36% conversion, not from 2 daily active users to 1e7 daily active users. Refinement only works if you're exploring a space that has productive al…
The developers of different kinds of games will have different motivations.
A developer of traditional games might think, "How can I make this game better in an aesthetic, or an educational sense?" Or, "How can I make this game a better FPS than the ones before?"
A developer of another game might think, "I want to make money, let me survey existing games and read psych literature and create the next billion dollar game. I don't care what form the game takes, or what players get out of it."
The claim is not that game developers for each game are creating an addictive game from scratch by A-B testing, but rather exactly what you said, that they're AB testing for smaller improvements in eyeball-retention, spending, and addictiveness, because all they care about are those metrics which drive profits (or valuation which can be converted into profits).
That a set of conscious design choices, on its own, isn't sufficient for extreme addictiveness doesn't change the fact that those conscious design choices are necessary, and those choices are being examined, analyzed, and documented by other game devs and by psychologists. So, of course you can take all the known lessons and apply them to a brand new game concept and fail horribly, but if your game is a success on other grounds and you mined other games and the literature for addictive ideas, you are much more likely to have a billion dollar super-addictive game than you would have been 20 or 30 years ago.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#164The organization I work for, Common Sense Media, has done a good bit of research on screen time, addiction, and it's effect on families. Here is the report on Technology Addiction: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/technology-addicti... Here is our other research reports covering a wide range of media/technology topics effecting children, families and teachers: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research?page=1
And here is a quote from one of those guides that pretty much sums it up:
“Pay attention to how your kids act during and after watching TV, playing video games, or hanging out online. If they're using high-quality, age-appropriate media; their behavior is positive; and their screen-time activities are balanced with plenty of healthy screen-free ones, there's no need to worry.”
Since I work from home on a computer all day, it seemed wrong to send mixed messages about screen usage. One trick we use is to set Alexa timers when starting screen time with our preschool and kindergarteners. You can argue with mom and dad, but Alexa is implacable. Also, the play room must be cleaned up and homework done, which seems to provide the “privilege, not a right” context we are looking for. It helps we have far better behaved kids in general that I have any right to expect. I blame my wife.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#165> There is a looming issue Ms. Stecher sees in the future: Her husband, who is 39, loves video games and thinks they can be educational and entertaining. She does not. I'm still peeved so many people hate video games categorically. Age of Empires & Civilization got me into history as a kid and I checked out dozens of books as a result. Plus, the reason I ended up wanting to learn more about computers was to make game…
Age of Kings had a cool Condition/Trigger system for scripting campaigns. I thought the idea was so simple, yet powerful, it influenced me to write a scripting language based off the concept in Qbasic when I was 14. The scripting language idea consumed and while I dropped the Condition/Trigger system for something more sophisticated eventually, I worked on making my scripting language for years and learned a ton of skills.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#166This has always been a form of Luddism. Tech is inevitable. I view tech similarly to how I view sex-ed in 2018: it's been proven that if you do abstinence only education then bad things happen (teen pregnancies, stds, etc...). Your kids are going to grow up to be adults with bad tech habits if you don't start teaching them how to use it responsibly and protect themselves early. Help them find good content. Have days…
This has always been a form of Luddism. Tech is inevitable. it's been proven that if you do abstinence only education then bad things happen How about driving technology? Children receive abstinence-only education on driving until they turn 15 or 16. There's plenty of precedent for young children being unable to safely & responsibly handle certain things. Was it Luddism that I wasn't allowed to operate a table saw wh…
I mean, you still have to go and actually learn how to drive once you turn 15-16 before anyone actually gives you a license/their car. People put a lot of time into that. There's also the fact that too small of a child physically can't see out of the front window.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#167Anyone care to share their Screen Time stats from IOS12?
Last 7 days:
Instagram 5h 32m (insta has a 2 hour custom limit set)
twofold 2h 55m (tetris-ish puzzle game)
unread 2h 38m (feed reader)
maps 1h 59m
twitter 1h 15m
Safari 1h 13m
Spotify 1h 5m
and then it drops off into under 10 minutes on various reference apps.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this playing out right now with Apple's phones, which get continuously bigger and shinier and brighter with every new generation. Then they give us "Screen Time" and Tim Cook talks about giving people the tools to be aware of how much they're using their phones and to make their own decisions about it. If drug companies said "We're discontinuing Advil for your headaches and replacing all painkillers with small…
Is there actually a link between screen size and addictiveness?
The user experience of scrolling through and viewing lots of content on a 4" screen is honestly not great. Apple, being Apple, sees that as a problem. I consider it a feature because it's easier for me to break away from. Web browsers, youtube, mobile games etc. I don't write emails from my phone unless it's an emergency, but I like having a smartphone because it gives me the option if I need to.
A lot of those behaviors, I currently have trouble with at full-size computers. I can absentmindedly browse cat pictures on reddit for a couple of hours. But I have to sit down at my computer to do that, I can't do it comfortably on a 4" phone screen. And I like it that way.
Put that comfortable time-wasting computer in my pocket where it follows me everywhere and I'm about 99% certain that I'm have a problem.
I'd love to know if someone's studied this more rigorously.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#169Anyone care to share their Screen Time stats from IOS12?
Last 7 days: Instagram 5h 32m (insta has a 2 hour custom limit set) twofold 2h 55m (tetris-ish puzzle game) unread 2h 38m (feed reader) maps 1h 59m twitter 1h 15m Safari 1h 13m Spotify 1h 5m and then it drops off into under 10 minutes on various reference apps.
24 pickups per day.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#170Grew up as a gamer and general lurker on the internet. Age of 24 and I've packed most of it in and focusing on the hobbies that I enjoyed that didn't involve a digital screen like reading and drawing, but still focusing on very few websites where I can stay up to date on the more educating and hobbiest content of the internet that's relevant to me and not go down a spiral of binging on instant gratification that I can't share or express in a meaningful way with other people I know IRL. Will probably still play games like I still listen to music and watch movies, but much more selective now than I used to be