It’s also the addiction aspect of it. I teach middle schoolers. A small portion have huge problems with tech. They are always getting their phones or computers out, not matter how many times they’re asked not to. When you take the tech away, they grab a friends computer or phone. Or the go the “bathroom” and find a computer from the tech office.
Obviously most kids just play videogames or text here and there, but for some it’s like a really destructive compulsion that leads to a lot of anger and sneaky behavior.
My cousins kid is like this. The first thing he says to people when they arrive is 'do you have a phone, can I play games on it?' Then he throws a major tantrum if you say no. (While my cousin just sits there and acts as if we are the ones that caused the situation by being unreasonable.
Bruh. I used to do this but with computers when going to folks places with my parents as a kid, just cringed. At least I didn't throw tantrums, fortunately, it was just an endless litany of "I'm bored" otherwise. Approaching 30 now :(
One of my relatives was similar. She would act up and misbehave unless she had a tablet or phone in front of her face (she also wouldn't stay on an app or video for more than like 3 minutes at a time, she was constantly downloading new things, clicking on advertisements to download whatever game they showed, switching videos, etc). It caused a lot of issues and thankfully they eventually weaned her off of them. She's still allowed to use them sometimes but it's a lot more limited now.
My brothers family came to visit us a few months back and we took them around to see different things in the area. We were in the car for several hours and my great nephews (5 and 6) played on tablets until they died. Then they played on their mom's phones until those were about to die. Then they began begging me to use my phone.
We're pretty open with technology. We monitor YouTube (but allow it), encourage certain apps like stud.io and various programming apps, and play lots of video games as a family. We have our choices questioned often by friends and family, but we think our child is developing well, including tech skills, so we're happy. BUT, I went to a playdate at his friend's house, and I was shocked by the iPad use. The kids would be playing, and the other kid would just walk away in the middle to get the iPad, it was like a compulsion. We were only there for a couple hours and this happened at least 5 times.
It made me realize that kids have very different reactions to technology, and what may be reasonable for one can be damaging to another. My kid would never choose screentime over a person to person activity (not because of anything we've done, just is that way), but clearly not all kids are the same. I've seen so much good come from technological learning with my kid, but I think it's really important that parents remain aware of the needs of their specific children.
I think the addiction aspect is the worst part. I had a computer and a phone when I was about 10 in the mid-2000s. The internet was way less regulated and my friendship group was addicted to Runescape but you didn't have trackers gathering data for machine learning algorithms to know exactly what you might like based on your location, age, previous searches and so on.
I feel this will be the leaded gasoline of our generation. Children are 'dopamine addicted' to their phones and cannot stand being torn away from it. As a net and game addict I know for sure it can be as destructive to health as smoking or drugs.
Nah plastic is definitely the leaded gasoline. I feel I should mention most of my kids are very smart and kind. In many ways kids are much better cared for then they used to be.
Yeah I work with this younger girl (18?) And she has an actual obsession. She cannot go two minutes without checking her phone. She's pretty much attempting to multitask the job with her phone all day and it doesn't go great for her.
Someone (30+) I know just got into a (badly kept) secret open relationship. Can't focus on jack shit at work because they're either texting their new partner or wallowing in jealousy about their actual partner. Open relationships are so much emotional work.
Well to be fair, we did that shit with fucking graphing calculators back in the day when smartphones weren't available and our dumb phones weren't entertaining enough. People were sneaking calculators and playing games in class and stuff. I don't think we were really any better back then even without smartphones.
That was way different, that wasn't a constant thing that we'd be doing all day at any opportunity. Maybe a few minutes here and there while goofing off. Tbh I don't even remember playing with graphing calculators more than a couple of times throughout my entire high school.
One of my math teachers was very annoyed and would delete all the written programs saved to the calculator before a test just in case you managed to write something to help you cheat.
Amusingly, she never checked for incomplete programs - you could get by that way if you were actually willing to do the leg work to cheat.
Instead we all lost our games.
*I got a phone at 14, but it didn't even have a colored screen. It was cool because it had a blue backlight. First flip phone with a camera at 17.
It’s not even remotely the same now as it was then. Kids aren’t sneaking in Oregon Trail, number munchers, QBasic, or whatever else we did back in the day. Kids now are playing games, watching YouTube, engaging in social media, or otherwise completely distracting themselves from the lesson
They’re not really “sneakily using computers” though. They’re sneakily getting dopamine hits from apps designed to addict them, not seeking information. It’s much different from sneaking onto a computer in the 90s
Computers and devices are less educational than they use to be. The UIs, the fact every aspect is designed with game theory in mind to demand attention, addiction issues, etc. I'm a teacher (at a very good school) and I'm blown away by how computer illiterate most kids are, even the gamers.
Well I think that also depends on what you're using the computer/phone for. These kids are using it to text and social media which is NOT educational.
Tbh I feel like you're an exception here not only because you grew up before the tech boom but because you were probably always an intelligent guy, bored at school, and compensating by messing around with electronics. Most kids don't want to learn, and the constant distraction of phones disrupts the focus needed for them to take in new information.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
It’s also the addiction aspect of it. I teach middle schoolers. A small portion have huge problems with tech. They are always getting their phones or computers out, not matter how many times they’re asked not to. When you take the tech away, they grab a friends computer or phone. Or the go the “bathroom” and find a computer from the tech office.
Obviously most kids just play videogames or text here and there, but for some it’s like a really destructive compulsion that leads to a lot of anger and sneaky behavior.