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Comment by bpizzi | Hacker News Reader

> Screens are extremely addictive to kids. (Adults too, I suppose, but that's their own responsibility.)

No, wrong. What can be addictive is the content displayed by the screen and the eventual interaction that the kid have with this content.

Put a kid in front of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viOkh9al0xM (`This is the Train Driver's/engineers/operator/conductors view from the Bergen Line and the Famous Flåm Railway in Norway in Northern Europe.`), and start a 30s countdown: the kid will have left the screen before, guaranteed.

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Wrong. My 2-year old loves videos of trains, both from this perspective and showing the trains themselves. She can last longer than 30 seconds, and is thrilled by them way longer than me (the videos are pretty, but I find trains boring).

The screen itself is addictive. Content can vary, but as long as it's not just a block color without sound or movement, many kids will find themselves glued to it.

How about the content is addictive based on the kid's interest?

You can use screen positively: the kid is able to describe back what is being seen, something reasonable is going on.

Agreed, probably what kids find attractive varies from kid to kid.

I'm not saying it's negative. I usually bond with my daughter over things we watch together. It can be sometimes hard to unglue her from the screen, but I have some tactics that sometimes work (we don't watch TV or screens over dinner, so if she's hungry she has to turn it off. I can also convince her to turn it off if I go play with her, something that I also enjoy!).

Similar! We used to watch tv at lunch, but almost never now.

We do however one thing. She is allowed to get off the table when she wants, but if she does we take away her plate because she is done. We are a bit "elastic" on this because sometimes she gets down to grab something and goes back, or her brother is really distracting. However if she goes to the tv the plate is gone immediately (there is an informatory call before she reaches the tv "i see you are done with the food. Are you full?").

That has been working well. When she actually gets up she is done with food.

It is also a great signal to figure out when she is constipated. She would almost skip 1 or 2 meals, then eat a lot once she is done.

> Wrong. My 2-year old loves videos of trains, both from this perspective and showing the trains themselves. She can last longer than 30 seconds, and is thrilled by them way longer than me (the videos are pretty, but I find trains boring).

My two 8/10y old boys won't. Great, there's two data point now, we can plot a trend!

> The screen itself is addictive.

Is a switched off screen addictive too?

If your answer is along 'of course not, I just said that content can vary, use your brain, fill in the gaps geez', then that was exactly my point to the GP: no, screen are not systematically addictive per-se, the addiction lies in the viewer's behavior when consuming a specific content.

I'm sorry, I can't agree with your point.

You were generalizing, I showed you an instance were what you said didn't hold; and I know more cases. You bet that train videos were boring to kids and I proved you wrong in the general case.

> Is a switched off screen addictive too?

This question is absurd. A switched off screen is, for all intents and purposes, not a screen.

My argument is that my kid and many others are instantly attracted to screens as long as they show motion and sound, and that it doesn't have to be a children's cartoon or song.

Switched on screens remain powerful attractors for many children.

> You were generalizing,

The GP was!

> I'm sorry, I can't agree with your point.

At least we're getting somewhere!

gp: Screens are extremely addictive to kids

me: wrong, any kid will not like train video

you: wrong, mine is, the screen itself is addictive.

me: no, screen are not systematically addictive per-se, the addiction lies in the viewer's behavior when consuming a specific content, or are switched off screens intrinsically addictive?

you: this is absurd, a switch off screen is not a screen, let me rephrase for you: switched on screens remain powerful attractors for many children

Next round is where we agree that, actually, its the content showed on a switched on screen that can or cannot trigger attraction for a child: yours is ok with trains, mines are not.

But I'll stop here, that was fun, but I've got some other things to handle.

Seems like a distinction without a difference. ("Cigarettes aren't addictive, it's the chemicals in cigarettes that are addictive.")

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