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Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

nytimes.com

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Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#71

Post by spencerwgreene »

chris_mc wrote: post #5

> “It was just a pattern for me — to open my phone and I would have nowhere to go,” she said. “I was just looking at a screen. It was kind of weird, so I’m trying not to do that.” I found out I did the exact same thing when I deleted my Reddit account and set limits here on HN. I used to find myself unlocking my phone, looking at it, opening Google News to the same old articles, then locking it and doing something el…

I traveled around Europe for a month recently with my phone in airplane mode the whole time (except when needing to call a taxi at 3:30am in Venice, Italy). In the first week I also found myself doing this.

As long as technological progress continues improving, we will unintentionally (and intentionally) make things more addictive than before. The same process that drives good technological progress also drives bad technological progress.

Paul Graham's essay on this (http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html).

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#72

Post by spencerwgreene »

reaperducer wrote: post #32
derefr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried reading e-books? I've replaced most of my "on break" or "during commute" social-media time with plain reading of long-form content. I wouldn't describe myself as "being a slave to technology"—I just wanted something to entertain me when I had nothing to do. Social media was a bad way to fill that hole, in terms of the emotional costs. Books are a better way to fill that hole. Even if both just loo…

Have you ever tried reading e-books? I've replaced most of my "on break" or "during commute" social-media time with plain reading of long-form content. I tried that, and it didn't work for me because it's just too easy to switch to another time-absorbing app if the phone is already in my hand. But I did something similar: I started reading actual books. The key was to buy used paperbacks for $1 from low-end bookstore…

Have you tried Audible? Works great for me for the doing laundry, washing dishes, commuting, etc., modes.

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#73

Post by l3mu »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #63

For me, the thing that triggers my phone usage for the most part is notifications. So, I ended up disabling all of them except for a few people I need to be able to hear from (family) and slack messages from my work org. I look at my phone little enough that my OnePlus 3 will last two days. Now, the most anoying thing about this approach is when apps don't want you to disable notifications and constantly complain abo…

I found that while it was easy enough for me to swipe away notifications from all my apps, it was the red badges that caused me to open an app as soon as I could - sometimes if for nothing else than to get rid of the badge. Switching my phone's settings to monochrome helped me as it meant that I had to intentionally look to see if an app had a badge on or not.

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16476727

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#74

Post by systemtest »

reaperducer wrote: post #34
thermodynthrway wrote: post #16

You would think a teenager with a job could just get their own phone plan. I'm kinda thankful helicopter parenting is being undermined by technology (internet+Uber), maybe one day we will get back to reasonable parenting practices they had back in the 60's-70's. We don't let our kids roam the neighborhood anymore even though it's a magnitude safer than it was decades ago. I don't understand how we expect kids to star…

I'm kinda thankful helicopter parenting is being undermined by technology I wish. I know people in their late 30's who are on their parent's cell phone plan, and have tried (unsuccessfully) to get on their health insurance.

To be honest, I share my Netflix account with my parents. Saves me a bit of money.

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#75

Post by systemtest »

wink wrote: post #61
reaperducer wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kinda thankful helicopter parenting is being undermined by technology I wish. I know people in their late 30's who are on their parent's cell phone plan, and have tried (unsuccessfully) to get on their health insurance.

I know tons of people here in Germany who have had their cars officially running with their parents' insurance well into their late 20s (basically as long as possible because it was simply like half the price), at least until some years ago. We also have this health insurance thing where you can be insured with your parents up until 25 I guess, if you're still going to school or university. Maybe your point is "peopl…

If you have a car on your parents insurance, you are not building up your "damage free years". So it's better to just pay for the high insurance at a young age so you will enjoy low insurance later on in life. At 26 I was already at the maximum of 80% discount on my car and motorcycle insurance.

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#76

Post by salvar »

sturmeh wrote: post #68

I feel like this is a oddly biased study, as there are two major influencing factors that would have changed Sophie's behaviour. 1. The limits, creating a hard limit, obviously screen time is going to reduce, you can also make my battery a 10th of the size and achieve the same result, it doesn't mean I'm better off or happier. 2. The surveillance. The writer, as a complete stranger to the teenager (for the most part)…

It's a father setting rules for his daughter (and himself while he's at it). Of course it's biased. What's odd about that? I'd understand if this was published as a study, but it's literally a NY Times article telling a story.

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#77

Post by addicted »

thermodynthrway wrote: post #27
jnwatson wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a parent of a 14-year-old, I would far prefer she be roaming about than on her phone. These devices are addictive, and limiting them is important.

I don't see it being any worse than the TV shows and consoles of years past. Or the arcade and bowling alleys of years before that. It's just the newest big time killer. All of those mediums are designed to be addictive and I don't think increased convenience makes it much worse

They are significantly worse. There is absolutely no comparison. 1) Phones combine actual essential features with “time killers”. With a TV or arcade games, there was no illusion of those activities being essential in any sense. So the easy response for both of those was to limit access time. You cannot do that as easily with modern phones (these features are an attempt to do so).

2) Availability. Your phone is with you all the time. Because it is portable and it is personal. A TV was usually shared and rarely portable like the phone. Same is true of other major time killers.

3) Variety. Phones have a much greater variety of addicting behaviors. It’s like taking a super charger TV, arcade games, and a whole host of other new addicting features (e.g. social media which in addition to the dopamine hits has built in fun peer pressure aspects necessitating their use amongst kids), throwing them in the same device, making it extremely portable and available, and then throwing in some essential features (messaging/phones) so parents have to make them available to kids, and until recently providing no decent ways of limiting the usage. 4) Data and dopamine hits. Almost every other “time killer” until now has had to target a fairly broad demographic but today’s apps and social media sites, etc have the smartest brains in the world sitting around plotting how to get adults and teenagers hooked onto their service based on their individual usage. I’ve quit FB but noticed that the app spent the next month spamming me with a variety of notifications trying to figure out what would get me to open it (a birthday reminder did the trick) and then spammed me with birthday notifications until that stopped working and went back to a variety of notifications again. TV never had the ability to target individuals to this degree.

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#78

Post by 300bps »

salvar wrote: post #76
sturmeh wrote: post #68

I feel like this is a oddly biased study, as there are two major influencing factors that would have changed Sophie's behaviour. 1. The limits, creating a hard limit, obviously screen time is going to reduce, you can also make my battery a 10th of the size and achieve the same result, it doesn't mean I'm better off or happier. 2. The surveillance. The writer, as a complete stranger to the teenager (for the most part)…

It's a father setting rules for his daughter (and himself while he's at it). Of course it's biased. What's odd about that? I'd understand if this was published as a study, but it's literally a NY Times article telling a story.

You may have missed this part of the article near the beginning:

“Just one problem: I don’t have a child, so I needed to borrow one. Fortunately, my editor gleefully volunteered her 14-year-old, Sophie, to be a test subject.”

Re: Using Apple’s New Controls to Limit a Teenager’s iPhone Time

#80

Post by hvidgaard »

systemtest wrote: post #75
wink wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know tons of people here in Germany who have had their cars officially running with their parents' insurance well into their late 20s (basically as long as possible because it was simply like half the price), at least until some years ago. We also have this health insurance thing where you can be insured with your parents up until 25 I guess, if you're still going to school or university. Maybe your point is "peopl…

If you have a car on your parents insurance, you are not building up your "damage free years". So it's better to just pay for the high insurance at a young age so you will enjoy low insurance later on in life. At 26 I was already at the maximum of 80% discount on my car and motorcycle insurance.

It depends on the country I suppose. In Denmark most insurance companies offer "elite" status as long as you're 30 with no prior accidents to your name.
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