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Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

bbc.com

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Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#41

Post by gzread »

blakblakarak wrote: post #37
retrac98 wrote: post #19

My parents generation are the most screen addicted people I know. Absolute slaves to Facebook’s algorithm. It’s really disheartening to see.

My Dad’s got early stage dementia and Facebook is an absolute nightmare. The apps infested with AI slop and the algorithm seems to fill his feed with stuff designed to get him worked up (currently badly behaved cyclists even though he no longer drives).

Mine got Israeli propaganda and kept texting me so often about Hamas and Muslims that I had to block him.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#42

Post by nomel »

nicbou wrote: post #14
susam wrote: post #9

Fortunately, I could never get used to the small screens of mobile phones as a serious computing or web browsing device. So my use of my mobile phone is limited to basic tasks like making calls, sending messages, and sometimes, reluctantly typing emails when I don't have a laptop handy. My primary computing and web browsing device remains my laptop, with Emacs and Firefox being my main tools. One thing that does mana…

Try Unhook (desktop) and Untrap (iOS). At this point, my YouTube experience is just the channels I subscribe to, and the video player. It reduced my usage to almost zero. I'm not exactly curing cancer, but my media consumption is more moderate and mindful now.

Same thing can be achieved (mostly) by disabling youtube watch and search history. It causes the home page to be blank, and all recommendations under any video are usually from your subscriptions, related your subscriptions, or directly related to the video.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#43

Post by everdrive »

This feels similar to how you'll see rows and rows of elderly people mindlessly pushing the slot machine buttons in casinos. It makes me wonder if impulse control starts breaking down for that crowd.

Of course, I also wonder if non-digital natives also just have less of a thick skin for this sort of thing.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#45

Post by tromp »

Cpoll wrote: post #32
xnx wrote: post #30

I really wish iPhone/Android had better parental controls so I could monitor my dad's screen time and the type of content he was allowed to see on YouTube.

The recontextualisation of "parental" is very amusing.

As nicely illustrated in this Young Sheldon episode fragment: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Nd90rFPYVnc

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#46

Post by toomuchtodo »

serial_dev wrote: post #31
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone would like to and is willing to make the time, that’s fine, but you don’t owe them this if they are not a good person or worth spending time with imho. Connection and community is earned, not a given. My lived experience is there are some good old people you strive to make time with, some who are fine but I wouldn’t go out of my way to make time for, and some who are just terrible people who are going to d…

It’s all fine, but in that case also do not worry about this hypothetical old person spending time the way they like to.

Certainly, how they spend their time is their choice, concepts of free will and all that.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#47

Post by politelemon »

nomel wrote: post #42
nicbou wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Unhook (desktop) and Untrap (iOS). At this point, my YouTube experience is just the channels I subscribe to, and the video player. It reduced my usage to almost zero. I'm not exactly curing cancer, but my media consumption is more moderate and mindful now.

Same thing can be achieved (mostly) by disabling youtube watch and search history. It causes the home page to be blank, and all recommendations under any video are usually from your subscriptions, related your subscriptions, or directly related to the video.

This is the simplest and most effective solution, Cheers

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#48

Post by HerbManic »

gedy wrote: post #22
Simulacra wrote: post #2

Maybe a solution is to spend more time with grandparents, so that they have something more than just technology to keep them company.

Sure, but I've seen since the 70s old folks just staring at TV all day, so it's not just a mobile phenomenon either.

Very true, phone addiction is that taken to a new level but the same underlaying issues remain.

Re: Grandparents are glued to their phones [video]

#50

Post by reactordev »

Social media is a cancer and more people need to realize this. No amount of platforming will fix this. It’s designed to extract behavioral traits about you. It’s designed to spy on your shopping and browsing habits. It’s designed to build a model of you. Everyone fell right in.
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