This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
This smells like one of those fake clickbait stories...
More like ragebait.
Don't think so. Havent you met kids feeling shit because of social media? It's everywhere.
Maybe people feel like shit cause the planet is being destroyed by a bunch of rich assholes?
I don't think banning this knowledge from kids is going to help.
Kids are not looking for that knowledge, I think you know that. Planet is being destroyed, yes, but nothing you can do about it by using your phone.
a better person
More like a better liar.
So set fucking limits on the phone? Is 'all or nothing' somehow the only option? It's not hard to set time limits, restrict apps, and generally be involved in your kids lives to help them understand and learn moderation and healthy recognition of bad habits forming. Simply taking shit away also doesn't help cause there's no opportunity to make mistakes and learn. Where's the fucking middle ground?
Also...
Everyone is glued to their screens these days.
What a boomer comment.
she bought
Asshole move, regardless of intentions
I kind of agree. That's why I don't let my kids buy stuff like that. My kid said he wanted to buy a phone, and when I told him it would be subject to our same computer policy (<2hrs/day, they earn time by reading, etc), he suddenly wasn't as interested.
But yes, if you create a bunch of new rules after they buy something, you're a dick. Let them know what the rules will be before they save up for it.
It’s our generation’s cigarettes.
“I don’t know, everyone was just doing it” is what we’ll say and what prior generations have said about smoking everywhere all of the time.
The stimulation from and addiction to nicotine or social dopamine … it’s the same shit. The weird marketing, branding and business capture big tech has now could look just like the marketing and wealth of cigarettes in the past.
It's worth noting that cigarettes are physically addictive and cause cancer.
So no. phones =/= cigarettes. It's embarrassing that I have to say this.
Gambling is not physically addictive, but for its worst addicts it's as ruinous as cigarettes.
Social media is similar in that the dependence is psychological, and the harm caused can vary from basically none, to tremendous psychological and material damage (up to and including suicide as a result of self-esteem, bullying or body issues).
I would agree that it's our generation's cigarettes simply because it's ubiquitous and the impact on both health and society is unquestioned by the masses. It simply is. We don't smoke on a plane anymore because we don't want to give everyone cancer, but we don't take the same precautions to protect unconsenting individuals, like children, from becoming mush-brained iPad babies manipulated by the TikTok and YouTube algorithms.
Let's not forget that social media, Facebook to be specific, is blamed for fanning the flames of multiple ethnic conflicts in Asia and Africa that have ended in genocide. It's likely that cigarettes do more harm to the individual user, but social media does more harm to society. This is something we will have to reckon with in the future, and once we establish sensible controls and norms we'll wonder how we lived like this for so long.
