lol kids today should have such an advantage with early exposure to tech but over-protective parents will fuck up that early advantage for their kids thinking they know better. Instead of no screens, teach your kids smart browsing skills like always ad-block, identify sponsored content as the garbage it is, and see micro-transaction mobile games as the low-quality content they are. No screen policies leave your kids naive and easily manipulated once they do get screen time and they will __need__ screen time and to be savvy with it.
A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
381–390 of 516 posts
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know how useful an epicycle in your model this is. Content creators on Facebook aren't there to make money by driving page views either, and yet I assume you wouldn't say that Facebook is "good", by the standard were discussing.
At the same time, SO is hardly optimizing for return visits to SO in the same way that I would assume that Facebook is optimizing their platform for return visits and engagement to Facebook.
On the other hand, every time I go to SO to find a solution to problem ${X}, I find very interesting (to me) questions on the right, enticing me to waste time reading them. They are making an effort to keep people on the Stack Exchange sites.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#383I lived without a TV for 10 years.
But, when I got married, I could not convince my spouse that a screen free environment would be beneficial for our kids.
I also sometimes think I should get rid of my smart phone.
Do I really need it?
But given that I haven't, it is really hard to do one thing and ask my kids to do another.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the TOS of all games say that the player does not own them Yet loads of people sell their in-game items (that they got through chance) for real money. So in a sense, they do own them.
So, if a player does not have a title to anything in the game, the player has control over some items, and can sell this control? I suppose tokens in casinos also don't belong to players, but they are readily exchangeable for money. On one hand, this may be enough to consider it gambling for money. On the other hand, many games may expressly forbid selling in-game stuff. This is not easy to enforce, though, unless yo…
It is extremely easy to enforce: just make items non-transferable, so they can only be gained by actual questing. As soon as an item is gained, it is permanently associated to a given account.
Done.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#385I think it's less about the screen time, and more about what's on the screen. Echoing some of the existing comments: Games and sites today are vastly different than they were 20 years ago. Games like Civilization, Quake, Diablo, C&C, Mortal Kombat, Tony Hawk etc... were definitely addictive. But modern games like Fortnite and Clash of Clans are not engineered the same way. They are specifically designed to function l…
I was an avid gamer, and today I have a wonderful family and I manage 70 people, but I’m not sure my screen time really did me that much good. I don’t think it did me that much harm either, but I would probably have been better off being a normal kid.
I think modern games absolutely do harm, I don’t think they should really be called games either, because they are build for addiction to make you play their built in slot machines.
My children never had smart devices because nobody under 15 should ever touch a smart device. They grew up much healthier than their peers and I think it was the strict rules on technology that did most of the work.
I’m not against technology or smart devices by any means, but it’s hard to use both in a healthy manner and children are really bad at making the right decision.
I mean, you wouldn’t give your kid free reign in the candy store, so why would you do it on their smartphone?
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#386I watch don't watch television so much, because I prefer to read a book, write a book, work on computer, think about mathematics, etc. Sometimes is OK watching television sometimes though.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. It's irritating to me to hear screen time constantly discussed as a monolith. For example, I have no issue with my son playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He gets to poke around and experiment and explore and it has sparked a lot of imaginative play, curiosity and interesting conversations. Likewise, it's fine if he wants to watch the videos we've taken of our family, it helps him to remember relatives we don't g…
Advertising to kids happens through Youtube and Instagram, not those ugly Adsense iframes that can be spotted a mile away and at this point fall under "banner blindness" for a lot of users. I'm not a gamer so I don't know much about Zelda, but the sort of hypnotic hold some Youtube/Insta personalities have on kids is astonishing. They will parrot their talking points, talk about them relentlessly with friends and buy…
Just tell him to use Chrome/Firefox and Adblock Plus.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
Advertising to kids happens through Youtube and Instagram, not those ugly Adsense iframes that can be spotted a mile away and at this point fall under "banner blindness" for a lot of users. I'm not a gamer so I don't know much about Zelda, but the sort of hypnotic hold some Youtube/Insta personalities have on kids is astonishing. They will parrot their talking points, talk about them relentlessly with friends and buy…
Just tell him to use Chrome/Firefox and Adblock Plus.
Better to use uBlock Origin, which won’t let through “acceptable” ads. If you really want to protect the kid, and are willing to set it up or teach them, uMatrix is good too.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree with your last point. Technology will always be "just a tool." By its nature, it is morally neutral. The use of technology for good or for evil reflects the morality of the people deploying it. Explosives, baseball bats, water, radios, software. All have been used for noble purposes and for evil. That does not impart morality to the technology.
I hear you, its like saying alcohol is just a chemical. Which is true of course. But I think it's naive and idealistic. Taken to an extreme, you could say people are just chemicals and electrical impulses, right? But that's crazy.
Yeah we are definitely more than our material selves.
Re: A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley
#390The 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
Thank you, Common Sense Media. Your website helped me get control over what my wife and parents were exposing my four year old daughter to, by establishing a neutral source of extremely valuable information. It became very easy to set guidelines thanks to your rating system and the wide range of titles reviewed. The new 3D animation style and cutesy animal characters are dangerously subversive. My mom thought I was b…
This is funny to read. Kids stuff has been getting tamer and tamer over the years. Check out the early 2Oth Century Disney cartoons, the original Popeye, etc.