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Comment by mhh__ | Hacker News Reader

On the reading question raised by another comment: I went to school recently enough that we had smartphones but before tiktok. You were allowed them but they'd be confiscated if seen in lessons or corridors.

On balance I'd probably try and get rid entirely, but vividly recall my academic/engineering/whatever awakening being from downloading huge quantities of textbooks and the like onto my phone at the age of 14 or 15, so I wouldn't go stray too far away from modern technology in some sense.

I could also argue that this made me quite distracted but (say) also meant that it was the best part of a decade until I would see something, conditioned on that I found it interesting, that I hadn't seen before in formal education.

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I think the question “how do we encourage digital exploration without causing phone addiction” is the defining question of our generation.

> the question “how do we encourage digital exploration without causing phone addiction” is the defining question of our generation

One component seems to be not providing them with a networked general-purpose computer out of the gate.

That is how you wind up with new office workers who don't know how folders or a file system works.

thoughtful guardrails are important.

Punish companies that make addictive algorithms. Pre-social media, websites were no where near as damaging

I definitely plan to limit my kid’s exposure to certain algorithms as much as possible.

As someone who has used zero social media in 10 years, this is incredibly trivial.

No one complains about being hopelessly addicted to listening to audio books or doing anki flashcards.

I suspect it isn't just social media but the cultivation of an online presence that is hopelessly addicting to many.

It is kind of like saying how do we get people to stop being addicted to smoking crack pipes. The crack is the problem, not the pipe.

That implies an underlying assumption that we need digital exploration. Do we?

Despite its flaws, HN is some of the best digital exploration there is. At least some teenagers spend time here and I’m glad they do.

I say we do need digital exploration.

Yes. That's in the before fore.

Social media is far more addictive now. And doom scrolling is far better tuned. I see my kids and those of my friends. It's not at all what it was even 10 years ago.

This is only getting wise as engagement is the only metric these companies care about. I support the social media ban under 18.

> downloading huge quantities of textbooks and the like onto my phone at the age of 14 or 15

I also used the internet to get interesting tech manuals (and plenty of other books) from IRC channels when I was young

But that was before social media, which has IMO destroyed (not entirely, but largely) the positive aspects of internet connections for teenagers

A phone is now primarily a source of always-on entertainment (in 10 second bytes).

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