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Comment by jinushaun | Hacker News Reader

Disclaimer: I have kids.

Reading the comments, I’m shocked people are resigned to it being an inevitability. As if we all didn’t grow up before internet and smartphones. (80s kid here) All those things are still there: museums, arcades, amusements parks and kid centers. Nevermind all the free stuff like parks, playgrounds and hiking. Or simply going over to a friend’s house. Did coloring books, legos and puzzles disappear? No. Hell, even TV is better than smartphones.

Kids on smartphones is a choice. I think the problem is that modern society has forgotten that it is ok to be bored. You don’t have to be entertained every second of the day.

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> even TV is better than smartphones.

Why? My intuition is just the opposite. TV is passive, smartphones are interactive.

Hanging out in between jobs with a coworker, in between topics of conversation, he pulled out his phone to scroll. And so I asked if he remembered anything he'd scrolled past yesterday... and he could not. Nor could he remember anything he'd scrolled past more than 15 minutes ago, after we set the bar lower.

Notably, this wasn't TikTok or Instagram, but Facebook posts. Messages, postings, photos from friends (with a profitable amount of advertising). And I call that out because I'm confident TikTok and other social media is worse. It's mechanical; flick, forget, scan, repeat.

I don't think he's unique in this either. If you ask your friend or kid what they scrolled past yesterday, I don't think you'd get a real answer. So maybe you're a cut above, and you use your smartphone differently. But I don't think they're as interactive as you think they are.

I couldn’t tell you the articles I read on HN yesterday either.

I do however remember them when something relevant comes up in daily conversation.

For instance, today I was scrolling on TikTok and learned how to properly hold a bunny. It’ll stick with me. Will I be able to tell you that I learned how to hold a bunny tomorrow? Probably not. The retention will remain though.

Same way I couldn’t tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday. Maybe a muffin? Idfk.

That's social media you're talking about. Not smartphones.

Smartphones can be a vehicle for social media. As can laptops. But they don't have to be.

I agree, up to about junior high you can restrict smartphone/tablet usage. At about 12 it really seems like the social pressure to have a phone becomes really intense, unless there's some school wide restriction.

I guess one question is how you introduce it in a way to inoculate them against the addiction without just allowing it. Mostly, I've just seen temporal restriction, but by 16 or so they can afford to have a "burner" so it's much harder to restrict at all.

The more I read the more school wide bans seem the key. Anything done at the home is pointless in comparaison. Imagine how can a kid stand idly by their pairs in free time if they are all on their smartphones and only interact there? It’s more than pressure.

Fully agree! Here in Austria some schools started banning smartphones and I hope more and more will follow (or even be required by law).

I'm convinced kids who are in team sports end up more well adjusted as adults especially in the smartphone age.

There are parents who don't put there kids in any extracurriculars and then there are parents who have their kids in sports growing up. With team sports at least you force your kids to put down phones/games and work on something that requires team effort and concentration and practice and social skills. Seems entirely underrated.

I think it is even highly desirable to be bored once in a while. Completely agree with everything.

Kids are just mirroring what they learnt from their parents. Phone at the dinner table, phone out as son as you step into the elevator for literally a 20sec ride, phone out on a date or when hanging out with friends. These started more than a decade ago.

Well, I guess one big part was gaming arcades, back then. They no longer exist, or are rare and derelict.

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