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Comment by a_imho | Hacker News Reader

Youtube is turning 14 next year and computers have been mainstream way longer than that. Personally I was a kid when it was the TVs fault and video games were making kids violent, but imo things turned out just fine.

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YouTube as a 24/7 entertainment channel for kids is definitely not turning 14 now; it's pretty much a recent phenomenon.

It started with Minecraft "let's play" videos, that was around 2010.

Lets play videos did exist much earlier for quite a few different games.

Definitely, I'm not saying that these videos were the first. I'm saying that this trend started with them. Meaning: Many of the original 2010 Minecraft youtubers are still around and they're generally considered "the veterans".

Trading card games and D&D is ruining kids.

Those darn stick-and-hoop games are ruining our Victorian kids.

That sort of games do require physical activity, though; plus some verbal contact.

Kids these days don't know they're born! When I was a kid I had a stick and I was happy!

Cue Monty Python sketch

Regarding “just fine” - I may be mistaken, but my impression is the pre-home PC (and game consoles) generation is more socially adept.

Problem is that one can't measure social skills against anything other than ones own standards, and those evolve as generations go. In the eyes of a 1900 upper middle class person, we'd probably all be degenerates.

I'm born '86, regular access to technology since the early nineties. I'm a social kind of person, have many friends. Sometimes I just want to lock myself in for an entire weekend and play video games for 16 hours a day. Other times, I'll be having barbecues or going dancing.

And as many here have already stated, the extremes go smoothed over by time.

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