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Comment by latchkey | Hacker News Reader

My partner and I kid sat for a family of 3 brothers, while the parents were out of town.

The youngest, about 7 I think, would come home after school and just watch a TT-like show on TV where it was just endless "scrolling" through short videos that appeared as though they were straight off TT/Insta. He was literally addicted to it.

Imagine someone producing/moderating that in a way to get kids to just continue to watch it non-stop.

My point is, you don't even need an app and age verification... this stuff is just right there on regular old TV.

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TV and video games had similar issues in generations past.

The solution is parents need to be involved with their children and set limitations on their use.

Agreed on the poor parenting.

Video games are a very specific genre and in some ways, actually activate the brain. Not trying to defend gaming (I'm not a gamer), but my point is that we are regressing even further away from generations past. We get enough generations of this, and it becomes normal. This kid will grow up, have kids... and they will do same thing.

If both mom and dad are in the workforce, both are climbing the ladder, grinding everyday... commuting hours every day, always tired... and still not even making enough for a good mortgage... who's going to take care of the kids? I think maybe let's just buy a tablet or a phone to keep the kids quiet while we mull in the many ways we're not going anywhere in life.

Traditional TV was a lot less addictive than TT. Video games were too taxing to consume an infinite amount of time.

When I was a kid I watched a lot of "You've Been Framed!", along with "Country X's funniest home videos" - does this new stuff differ much?

I'd argue that the biggest difference between that kind of "dumb variety tv" and tiktok is that tiktok is essentially endless, and it suits the content to you. There's a big difference between the heads of a clip show deciding what gets shown on tv based off empathy and the occasional focus group test, and an inhuman algorithm which pays attention only to "engagement" - whether that engagement be positive or negative.

America's Funniest Home Videos was a 30-minute show that was on once a week. Now with a million streaming "channels" it's presumably available 24/7, except without Bob Saget commenting.

TV is very predictable and is moderated a lot more than online platforms where any random person can decide they want to make a mental illness or a dangerous challenge into a "cool" trend.

I'm asking about comparison to these "new" tiktok-like shows, not tiktok itself.

yeah it's engineered to be maximally engaging.

Is the 'TT-like' show on one of the thousand Rakuten channels Samsung bother me with? I've seen some what seems like to be endless loops of short TT like videos there of like dogs doing dances and stuff.

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