The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood | Hacker News Reader

The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood

theatlantic.com

46 pointsfortran7710 comments

One hard to discuss aspect of this that i notice is the parental benefit of plugging a child into the screen.

The kid becomes so engrossed you (as a parent) can almost pretend you are childless again. Its a strong temptation.

Then it is much easier for us all to blame the iPad itself, when it was actually a tool the parent used to dodge a bit of their responsibility.

That doesnt address all the different issues the article covers, but its a part of it. If we as parents didnt have that “out” then we would have to experience, adapt to and plan for more of our children’s development.

And for the record i do give my kid a tablet, but use device profiles to restrict her to only FaceTiming relatives and drawing. No video. This has made it so boring it is less attractive to her than magnitiles.

The nuclear family is a catastrophe all of its own. Most older cultures would consider two parents and two children in a house on their own far away from relatives a recipe for insanity in all parties, as it has been proven to be!

To me the smartphone seems worse than tablets and other devices.

Having some screen based entertainment available is one thing.

Having a smartphone inside a 7 year old’s pocket constantly providing notifications of group chats? Having a 9 year boy have unlimited unrestricted access to the web 24/7?

Children with smartphones. I think I’m very fortunate that I grew up before the iPhone was invented.

When I was going through middle school I had a PlayStation 2. I’m lucky I went through that time when electronics was magical and mindblowing and before it became what it is today.

I babysat a friend's kids for a week once. A YouTube video of police cars, ambulances, fire trucks driving by was an amazingly potent distraction and pacifier. I used it very very sparingly (it was just one week, and I was on holiday, not working), but I can see how it's extraordinarily tempting.

I would like to add that this also impacts you if you do not use social media due to the externalities. Most of socialisation does in fact happen there - so the choice is between submitting yourself to the brainrot, or not staying in contact with your friends.

I have not noticed a big decline in socialization since getting rid of Instagram and Facebook.

Same, I enjoy texting pictures, links, thoughts, etc to my friends and family that I know would enjoy the message instead of blasting it out into the void. Granted maybe they think I'm crazy.

Also I still do wish I had double the socialization I have. Everyone is just so busy, me too.

Are you <20 years old? I don't think they're focused on getting rid of "Facebook", they're much more active on Snap/Instagram/Discord/iMessage.

https://archive.is/ELoDv

I want to force every adult on the planet to read this.

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