Panic over children's mobile phone use distracts from the help young people actually want

[mylesillidge]

Social media panic

Should young teenagers be banned from using social media? That’s the question being discussed by British MPs debating a bill that proposes the government should decide within a year whether to raise the age children can have social media accounts from 13 to 16.

It follows a recent petition on the same topic that garnered nearly 130,000 signatures, which also triggered a debate among MPs.

 

[oros]

Should be a good thing?

 

[The_MAC]

Fine line here.

But education probably has the best chance of success. Previous generation only had to contend with smoking, drinking, drugs and sex. Which in hind sight, at least IMHO, was not properly managed by parents and schools from an education perspective.

Kids want what they want, might as well educate them rather than forcibly deny.

 

[Gudnews]

Here's the thing, the future is not made for you. These young phone zombies will do just fine amongst themselves in the world they've created.

 

[The Trutherizer]

While I agree that social media is super tough on kids, especially teenagers, that's not the only problem.

I've tried to put myself in the shoes of a teenager today. And regardless that my teenage years were mostly a great time - I shudder to think how the **** stains would have used the net, if it was already around back then. I can well imagine the type of things they would pull off. And yeah it's pretty much what we hear is going on now. Horrifying ****.

Aside from that. Parents being distracted for hours on end isn't exactly a winning family formula. Sure parents never spent all of their attention on their kids, but aside from instances of other dysfunction (alcoholism, mental illness, etc.) the majority of time was at least spent on the business of living. And that was mostly linked to family life to a degree. Which in turn inevitably revolved around raising kids with a reasonable degree of commitment and attention. I'm sure these days, raising kids could be described as a side hustle, for many, many parents.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Ban the stupid thing completely, for everyone.

Followed by a $1bn fine for anyone trying to start a new social media company...

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

OMG every generation is the same. Old Karens telling them how the new things are destroying them.
Just look at how bad our Gen X's turned out from all that satanism when playing LP records backwards.

 

[The Trutherizer]

Ban the stupid thing completely, for everyone.

Followed by a $1bn fine for anyone trying to start a new social media company...

Social media isn't in and of itself a terrible thing. The problem is the psychological manipulation they engage in to keep people engaged. It's not called an "attention economy" for nothing. So when psychological sciences such as ones originally devised for purposes such as war time propaganda, torture and counter-intelligence, get abused by profit driven share owned corporations, which obviously are not one bit concerned with individual rights, health of society as a whole or even entire individual nations - That's deleterious. And even dangerous.

Policy has simply not adapted quickly enough to keep the good and discard the rest. Make social media less manipulative and thus more benign - And it will actually be a net benefit for civilization in general. Even if it isn't then able to spin so much profit from thin air.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Social media isn't in and of itself a terrible thing. The problem is the psychological manipulation they engage in to keep people engaged. It's not called an "attention economy" for nothing. So when psychological sciences such as ones originally devised for purposes such as war time propaganda, torture and counter-intelligence, get abused by profit driven share owned corporations, which obviously are not one bit concerned with the health of society as a whole or even entire individual nations - That's deleterious. And even dangerous.

Policy has simply not adapted quickly enough to keep the good and discard the rest. Make social media less manipulative and thus more benign - And it will actually be a net benefit for civilization in general. Even if it isn't then able to spin so much profit from thin air.

The issue is you can't trust humans to act responsibly, their behaviour will always gravitate towards the lowest common denominator.

We thought broadband penetration would achieve better education, look how that turned out. It's being used for posting selfies and twerking.

Social media is the worst thing to have happened, it's dumbed down our species and it's too late to legislate now. You can't go on any public outing without being surrounded by a hoard of idiots ruining the experience trying to take selfies...

 

[sandwitch]

Yes. Get rid of them.

Boredom is a learning tool kids aren't acquiring because they just get given phones whenever. So kids lack creativity, imagination, curiosity, problem-solving abilities, empathy, social skills and it's getting worse.

Kids don't have the motor skills they used to: they can't skip or hop or jump. They can use a phone, but their physical ability to play is non-existent across the board.

I'm also very tired of parents phoning me to sort out their discipline troubles at home because their kids are sending/getting pictures or texts they shouldn't and they're spending too much time on their phones. I don't see your children's phones because they're in your own house. Why must I monitor their phones in your home?
You (according to the standard world clock, are supposed to...) spend more time with your children than I do:
You've stuffed phones in their faces to get your children to shut up and leave you alone.
You've created and enabled their addiction.
So if you call me to discipline your own child you've forked up. Badly.

Educating kids sounds lofty and ideal but it's thrown about by parents and curriculum planners who are ignorant forkwits: kids are already taught that in more than one subject!
But adding kids will be kids + kids will be sheep + unmanaged cellphone use + social media complacency = increased stupidity.

And before telling me that you monitor your children's cellphones, they delete their chats. They hide their chats. They are smarter than you with technology.
I had an aunt tell me she made her niece use the aunt's cellphone so she could monitor what her niece did. And her niece was still sending and getting naked photos because everyone else in her grade from schools in the area was doing it. The aunt said she'd been doing it for months.

 

[Jam Sandwich]

OMG every generation is the same. Old Karens telling them how the new things are destroying them.
Just look at how bad our Gen X's turned out from all that satanism when playing LP records backwards.

I miss my record player... And those dark nights when we used to cut chickens heads off and smear the blood all over each other while chanting in the devils tongue... Simpler times...

 

[Blackhand]

I would raise the age to 18.

Every metric we have says it’s bad for your mental health, well adjusted adults can barely navigate it.

Treat it like alcohol.

 

[The Trutherizer]

The issue is you can't trust humans to act responsibly, their behaviour will always gravitate towards the lowest common denominator.

We thought broadband penetration would achieve better education, look how that turned out. It's being used for posting selfies and twerking.

Social media is the worst thing to have happened, it's dumbed down our species and it's too late to legislate now. You can't go on any public outing without being surrounded by a hoard of idiots ruining the experience trying to take selfies...

Nah... I don't think that statement (regarding gravitating towards the lowest common denominator) is correct. If it was true, then we'd never have left the caves, or for that matter even the trees.

It is simple simply the case that whenever the common good (be that a vast tech driven network, or a banana tree) has been responsibly and benignly regulated and nurtured, we have progressed; And when not, we regressed.

 

[spiff]

Ban cell phones in school / colleges

There are a fucing curse when you try teach and they just play with their cell phones and thumbs, no interest in learning.

But dare ask them to do an assignment at home...but we don't have data!! You must give us free data!!

 

[wingnut771]

I'm all for the ban, increase age limit to 21 even. I just want to know what the penalty is for violating it? Do they send the teenager to military school?

 

[Mirai]

Social media panic

Should young teenagers be banned from using social media? That’s the question being discussed by British MPs debating a bill that proposes the government should decide within a year whether to raise the age children can have social media accounts from 13 to 16.

It follows a recent petition on the same topic that garnered nearly 130,000 signatures, which also triggered a debate among MPs.

Should young teenagers be banned from using social media?

YES.

It may likely cause a drop off in MyBB membership numbers though.

 

[wingnut771]

Or is it the parents that get arrested and sent to jail if their children violate the ban?

 

[Cosmik Debris]

Should young teenagers be banned from using social media?

YES.

It may likely cause a drop off in MyBB membership numbers though.

You also noticed the infantile content spewed by some?

 

[Mirai]

You also noticed the infantile content spewed by some?

It seems so. Then again if the nature of the content matches the chronological age of the commenter, it would be infantile to us but age appropriate for some of the posters here.