461–470 of 516 posts
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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.
I 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…
Echoing some of the existing comments: Games and sites today are vastly different than they were 20 years ago. In the old days, the focus was on playability. Games were fun . But a new genre has emerged particularly in mobile gaming that does something strange: it compels play even when it isn't fun anymore. In the old days when a game stopped being fun, you would stop playing. But these games, when they stop being f…
That's the power of positive and negative reinforcement. They want to shape the behavior of players. They want players logging into the game multiple times a day, every single day.
So they rate limit the player's game with "stamina" or whatever euphemism for a timer they come up with. Player was having fun playing the RPG with friends, only to run out of "stamina"! The choice is to stop and wait for the timer to reset or pay money to reset it. Then the player starts waking up at 3 in the morning because that's when the timer resets.
The simple timer reinforces a schedule and creates the behavior the game developer wants players to have.
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This is the conclusion that a lot of people on HN seem to be reaching. Now how do we go about filtering out the 'bad screen' while allowing the 'good screen?'
Is there a "Stallman" hosts file, that blocks all sites that do not have incredibly free software? I feel like dumping a kid into the deep end of linux box with access some so-so games installed and letting them figure out how to make things work is extremely valuable learning experience. It's the "passive" screen behaviors that are harmful IMO.
It will have connection but iptables will block everything. If they ever figure out how to disable that they are ready :) Man pages and other docs will be there for them to enjoy.
I will also buy some printed books for python, shell etc
They gona fucking hate me, but I am not feeding them equivalent of cocaine.
I 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 just wanna spend $20 on my skins for Fortnite" Right... the game is designed to hook you in, that's games, they've all done that since the year dot. You're invested. Except now, in order to continue getting the same high, you need to spend money. They're purposely engineered this way. Just like drugs. I grew up as the public internet took it's first breaths. When you had to figure out just how to get an internet s…
I 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…
Can you explain how overdoing it with Quake and Diablo is not the same ball-game as overdoing it with Fortnite?
Quake and diablo 2 / 3 - no loot boxes.
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Your comparison examples prove the points your arguing against. Both your examples are about fantastical violence and/or animal predator/prey violence - things that have little or no connection to a kid's real life growing up. It's not hard to dissociate real life from a casino torture chamber and a skinned head. What influence could this have on a child - make him make his own casino torture chamber? Grandparent com…
There's suggestions of casual sex and outright sexual behavior in Nightmare Before Christmas, and misogyny/rape in Watership Down. Nightmare Before Christmas includes some suggestions of using alcohol or other drugs on some of the villains. What evidence is there that normalizing violence is less problematic to a child? >heavy drinking, Sure, that's not a great thing to normalize. >tattooing, What's wrong with tattoo…
(To be honest, I’d go further and claim that a lot of adults don’t grasp the consequences of tattoos either).
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> They are specifically designed to function like a slot machine. I work in the gambling industry, making literally slot machines. Slot machines are heavily regulated and there is a lot of "engagement" tricks that can not be used in the gambling industry. The kind of trick that Candy Crush will use. The dangerous side of gambling is for people that think that they can "win money". But the games themselves are kind of…
I'm curious to know some examples of what is and isn't permitted. The flashing lights, interesting but not too interesting ding-dong-boom sounds, the loud massive amping up when you win something, all that is allowed and I believe (though don't quite have a source at hand) that these are provably enticing hooks. I'm sure there are things that aren't, but I'm curious as to what. I'm also curious about want Candy Crush…
Candy Crush seems to specialize in near misses, for example by creating levels where almost all of the achievements required to pass a given level are easy, and then one is next to impossible. You don’t keep $1 billion+ per year coming in on a years-old game without some serious psychological tricks.
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There's suggestions of casual sex and outright sexual behavior in Nightmare Before Christmas, and misogyny/rape in Watership Down. Nightmare Before Christmas includes some suggestions of using alcohol or other drugs on some of the villains. What evidence is there that normalizing violence is less problematic to a child? >heavy drinking, Sure, that's not a great thing to normalize. >tattooing, What's wrong with tattoo…
Just on the tattoos point... tattoos are like starting smoking. Not morally wrong, but they have permanent consequences that children are ill-equipped to judge. (To be honest, I’d go further and claim that a lot of adults don’t grasp the consequences of tattoos either).
But kids also shouldn't drive, and no one is calling for movies with people driving to receive a rating higher than PG ;)
I'm being facetious here, but only a little - the point shouldn't be to eliminate any behavior we don't want kids to emulate from the media they consume. It's simply not possible.
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Echoing some of the existing comments: Games and sites today are vastly different than they were 20 years ago. In the old days, the focus was on playability. Games were fun . But a new genre has emerged particularly in mobile gaming that does something strange: it compels play even when it isn't fun anymore. In the old days when a game stopped being fun, you would stop playing. But these games, when they stop being f…
> it compels play even when it isn't fun That's the power of positive and negative reinforcement. They want to shape the behavior of players. They want players logging into the game multiple times a day, every single day. So they rate limit the player's game with "stamina" or whatever euphemism for a timer they come up with. Player was having fun playing the RPG with friends, only to run out of "stamina"! The choice…
This is a common technique for manufacturing commitment: if a person must suffer for a thing, they come to justify to themselves that the thing is worth the suffering, and become more dedicated the more they do. Cults often use this technique.
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The dark pattern is series themselves. 1. They are massively produced and have replaced many other programs. There is always new content available, you can spend your life watching 3 new episodes an evening. 2. They are in fact not series any more, but serials. Each episode of a series has an independent storyline and comes to a conclusion; episodes can mostly be watched in random order, you can miss a broadcast, it…
"The dark pattern is series themselves." So, making good content that happens to span multiple episodes? That's the kind of engagement I really don't have an issue with. However—Netflix has autoplay next episode turned on by default, and if you find the setting to turn it off, each episode ends with a large screen prompting you to PLEASE click to play the next episode. As someone who really likes episodes to end clea…
No, it doesn't mean "good content" at all (it can accidentally be good content, but that's not usually the case). It means the ability to use tricks to get you hooked, to have you craving for more, and to trigger binge behaviour, no matter what the content is. There was no such binge consumption before, and there was no request for new content all the time, you could watch a random episode of a 10 or 20 years old series and you were fine with it.
On the contrary, with serials the writers/directors don't have to think about setting up a story that can start, develop and end in 42 minutes, which requires crafting.
They can patch whichever background story (love, treason, ...) that we have seen 800 times already, and activate it when they have no other idea on where the actual story should go. Even 'better', they activate it just 30 seconds before the end of the episode, so that, dammit! I wanted to stop there and go to sleep / do something else but I click on the next episode, and there we go, again, and again.
> However—Netflix has autoplay next episode turned on by default, and if you find the setting to turn it off, each episode ends with a large screen prompting you to PLEASE click to play the next episode. As someone who really likes episodes to end cleanly and give me time to think, this REALLY annoys me.
Well yeah, because the point of serials is to have people binge watch them, so the most common action is to watch an episode after another after another, and the publisher wants to facilitate this and makes you binge watch as much as possible.
He doesn't care if after watching 3 episodes you don't even remember the 1st one, he doesn't want to have clear ending, clear breaks that would give you the possibility to reflect and digest the episode, the point is to keep the flow going non-stop and occupy as much of your time as possible.