I banned my daughter from using the iPhone she bought. It made her a better person | Em Rio (www.theguardian.com)
from 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 05:39
https://lemmy.today/post/12040988

I think its not just kids anymore, it’s adults too. Everyone is glued to their screens these days. But kids are more vulnerable to influences from “social” media and don’t have any defences to the psychological warfare going on. Of course they feel like shit.

#technology

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chester22@api.clubsall.com on 14 Jun 05:56 next collapse

I feel sorry for all the kids who grow up their entire lives under the influence of social media. There has to be a stronger effort to shield children from these platforms and it definitely starts from the parents. Especially with these "iPad" kids--just glued to their screens all day! What would the attention spans of this generation in the future be like?

TheBananaKing@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:13 next collapse

He says, on social media

best_username_ever@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jun 06:42 next collapse

social media

An anonymous forum without any shitty algorithm.

TheBananaKing@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:47 next collapse

What do you think an algorithm is?

magic_smoke@links.hackliberty.org on 14 Jun 11:04 collapse

Tbf they did say shitty, none of the ones built into Lemmy exist to feed you advertisements in the most efficient manner, as far as I know.

MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jun 07:20 next collapse

Technically lemmy has lots of algorithms. It wouldn’t work without any

nyan@lemmy.cafe on 14 Jun 12:30 next collapse

without any shitty engagement algorithm.

There, fixed it for you—the extra word is important. Algorithms are evil only if used for the wrong purposes.

Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 14 Jun 14:48 collapse

Lemmy is far from anonymous.

noodlejetski@lemm.ee on 14 Jun 06:46 collapse
1984@lemmy.today on 14 Jun 06:25 next collapse

People don’t even take it seriously it seems.

nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br on 14 Jun 15:38 collapse

I feel like a better approach would be to work on making social media a better place. It doesn’t have to be an attention span hell, and it can be a nice toolfor socializing.

SattaRIP@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:10 next collapse

she bought

Asshole move, regardless of intentions

KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:16 next collapse

And if she bought crack with her own money, she should be free to use that, too.

SattaRIP@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:25 collapse

Yes

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jun 06:25 next collapse

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.

erwan@lemmy.ml on 14 Jun 07:03 next collapse

Read the article. Her mom agreed to it, and they set rules. It’s after that that it went bad.

Teal@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 19:45 collapse

The child from the article got the phone in sixth grade. If she bought a large bag of candy with her own money is it right to let her eat as much as she wants without boundaries?

Setting healthy boundaries and discipline at a young age is a good move. From how she was behaving with the phone I would have done the same.

jordanlund@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 06:13 next collapse

This smells like one of those fake clickbait stories…

1984@lemmy.today on 14 Jun 06:23 next collapse

Don’t think so. Havent you met kids feeling shit because of social media? It’s everywhere.

subignition@fedia.io on 14 Jun 07:27 next collapse

I've only seen kids feeling like shit because of social media, myself

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 14 Jun 15:40 next collapse

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.

1984@lemmy.today on 15 Jun 05:49 collapse

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.

callouscomic@lemm.ee on 14 Jun 15:58 collapse

Meanwhile my kids and all their classmates seem friendlier and more mentally healthier than I remember school age being. It’s all anecdotal. I’m always surprised at certain ages how some of these kids don’t allow bullying, and aren’t concerned with stupid relationship shit that I remember 20-30 years ago. It’s interesting.

I also know shitloads of adults depressed from Doom scrolling all day.

Your gross generalizations aren’t reality.

JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee on 14 Jun 08:46 collapse

More like ragebait.

maegul@lemmy.ml on 14 Jun 07:00 next collapse

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.

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 14 Jun 15:39 collapse

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.

moon@lemmy.ml on 14 Jun 16:33 collapse

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.

QuantumSoul@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 14 Jun 07:04 next collapse

How to make frustrated and untrusting children 101. I am sick of this authoritative parenting bullshit

[deleted] on 14 Jun 11:33 collapse

.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 14 Jun 07:50 next collapse

a better person

More like a better liar.

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 14 Jun 15:35 next collapse

the first generation of 10-to-14-year-olds active on social media. For these girls, suicide rates have risen 151%, self-harm 182%.

Citations needed. Even if there’s a legit study (unlikely), correlation =/= causation.

I recently met a woman who seized her 11-year-old son’s phone when she discovered he was sexting

Why give a phone to an 11 year old in the first place? These people are solving problems that they themselves created, then blaming phones.

callouscomic@lemm.ee on 14 Jun 15:53 next collapse

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.

bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 17:16 collapse

It’s not a simple story of just taking away the phone.

I discovered she’d circumvented the screen limits and had been using social media into the wee hours of the morning.

And later, after she did take the phone away, she found her daughter had kept all old phone that was supposedly sold.

It does seem to be a pretty extreme case, but there was lots going on here.

callouscomic@lemm.ee on 14 Jun 16:00 next collapse

I also wonder how many parents take phones from their kids but also turn around and post their whole lives on facebook.

TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 13:27 next collapse

ITT: people without kids projecting their childhood trauma

GBU_28@lemm.ee on 15 Jun 19:07 collapse

Lwmmy, in a nutshell

[deleted] on 15 Jun 19:44 collapse

.