Comment by wlll | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wlll | Hacker News Reader

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I bet they're not taking a lot of it in. Youth might convey certain enhanced abilities to switch between tasks efficiently denied to older people, but I'm willing to bet that even at the simple level of "computer game while on a call" sacrifices some of the attention of one of those things.

Related, my kids make grumpy faces when I tell them to turn off "background" Netflix or YouTube while they're doing their homework.

Semi related, my wife's friend came over and it was suggested we watch a film. "Aliens" was chosen as the friend and my wife hadn't seen it before. I put it on, they started chatting. When they started chatting I paused the film. They stopped chatting and asked what was up. I said that you started chatting so I figured you weren't watching the film, and I was actually trying to watch it. They promised to stop chatting. I played the film, they started chatting again after a short pause. We went through the pause/explain/promise cycle again and I played the film. They both promptly fell asleep.

> Related, my kids make grumpy faces when I tell them to turn off "background" Netflix or YouTube while they're doing their homework.

Are you aware of the reason why you are doing this? Have you examined your reasoning as thoroughly as the faces of your children seem to tell you? Do parts of your body feel numb?

> Are you aware of the reason why you are doing this? Have you examined your reasoning as thoroughly as the faces of your children seem to tell you?

What? It's simple isn't it? Multitasking doesn't work, all having these things on in the background will do is distract from the homework they need to do. This is literally a comment on an article about how multitasking doesn't work.

> Do parts of your body feel numb?

What the hell sort of question is this?

No, it isn't simple at all.

You described yourself as extremely self-centered and you didn't seem to notice that you did so. I'm wondering if you are one of those people who seem to only ever use the left side of their brain. You can function in the role of a father in this mode but don't expect your kids to take care of you when you're old if you never respect their opinions and desires. I'm reaching out to you because what you wrote seem tragic to me.

Applying human sensibilities to the result of an evolutionary process is not going to capture all its intricacies because evolution re-uses systems with no regard to taxonomy. Because of this you are for example unable to tell the difference between anxiety and gas trapped in your stomach, or tension in your neck and stress from work. There is no duality which lets us separate mind and body, and apparently people can get so out of tune with their own body, mind and emotions that physical numbness results.

Calm down, I tell them not to watch Netflix or YouTube while they're concentrating on their homework because it will affect their ability to concentrate. It's not some sort of police state. They lead happy fulfilled lives in general, and being told to not do those things isn't making a material difference to that.

Respecting people's opinions or desires doesn't mean letting them do anything they want, and not letting them do one fucking thing doesn't mean that "you never respect their opinions and desires". They're kids, they need structure, guidance and protection. You can let your kids do whatever the fuck they want wether it's good for them or not, let me know how that works out.

Your weird obsession with this, and your writing make you sound like a complete fucking weirdo.

You're a good father and what you wrote I agree, I don't know why some people downvoted you. Mutlitasking kills. What's wrong with a man telling his kids to not do multiple things at once and focus on the more important matters first?

Cursing and telling others to calm down...

Wow, you judged the whole character of a person by a single incident in their life. Great.

You meanwhile enjoy drama so much you feel you need to participate in a discussion that doesn't conern you even if you possess nothing with which to contribute. How close was I?

I know this is supposed to make them come off as distracted, but it seems like they just weren't so into the movie but you just come off as a bit of a knob.

It was made as a comment on another comment about "media being put on as background", an activity which I believe my wife's friend buys into. If that wasn't clear then perhaps you could have enquired rather than being so fucking rude.

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