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comment by cgod
cgod  ·  1737 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Don’t fall for the moral panic over children’s screen time

Maybe the history of new media and the reaction of the thought leaders throughout history could give you pause.

Socrates warned that the written word would ruin our ability to remember and reason. It's my favorite cautionary tale warning us against the dangers of new media.

I've made a list a few times of the things that are going to ruin the youth and lead to the downfall of society here on hubski before, so here's a quick few.

Old people are generally afraid of shit they don't understand and our generation is no different

Comic Books

Television

Movies

Video Games

Drugs

Dancing

Rock and Roll

R&B (mostly a danger for white women)

Rap

Any number of classic works of literature

Another one of my favorites was the time a doctor testified to a congressional panal that the Rolling Stones song Paint it Black's beat was contrary to the beat of the human heart and playing it on the radio might cause the death of countless youths.

That being said, I'm pretty concerned about when and under what terms I'm going to let my child use social media. I know that I don't understand how young people use it or its dangers. It's a stance born out of fearful ignorance and she'll probably be smart enough to work around any roadblocks I try and put in her way by the time she is a teen.





kingmudsy  ·  1737 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Best way to deal with introducing things you don't understand to your child is through teaching skills to deal with unknown and uncomfortable situations!

The majority of kids are going online without any guidance, and the majority of kids are going to turn out fine. If you want to hedge your bets, give her some knowledge about the types of scams she might encounter, and the type of people she needs to be wary of.

Your awareness of the situation makes me think you'll do a great job, for what it counts :)

cgod  ·  1737 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'll just mention that Google has a pretty decent game to teach internet safety called Be Internet Awesome. You can harp at your kid all you want about using good passwords or what is safe sharing of information and what isn't but after they have battled a troll over control of their personal info the the ideas really start to sink in.

We try to be pretty upfront about challenges she'll face in life but it's the curve balls that usually throw you for a loop. I'm sure she'll have to face a bunch horrible, strange and mean stuff in her life but hopefully she'll be resilient and self aware enough to get through it.

cgod  ·  1737 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How did I forget booring ass Jazz music. Let's hope screen time is as dangerous as the last Wynton Marsalis album.

Scandalous!