Seeing almost feral iPad kids has put me off giving my children a portable screen, especially one with unrestricted access to the internet.
The surprising part is I grew up around computers and the internet (got my first email when i was 4) and have always had a desktop PC around, but somehow gravitated towards building websites, small C games, and even though YouTube, Metacafe, Facebook, Miniclip were easily accessible, me and a lot of my peers never got addicted to them.
Maybe it's the way games and apps are designed these days and attempt to hijack your attention, nearly all of them utilising a similar UX pattern (infinite scroll videos, stories, for example) and the effects it has on developing children could very well be magnitudes higher than how it affects adults severely stunting their intellectual growth. If adults are developing attention issues due to such patterns, can't imagine what it must do to children.
I think I'm just going to give them a dumbphone, like a cheap Nokia and computer access at home, but also something else to think about is bullying that is pervasive based on your status and wealth often displayed as the latest iPhone, Playstations, etc and the chance of them being outcasts for not conforming to such structures.
> Maybe it's the way games and apps are designed these days and attempt to hijack your attention, nearly all of them utilising a similar UX pattern (infinite scroll videos, stories, for example)
I'm pretty sure that that's exactly the problem: modern phones and tablets are interactive TVs first and foremost that happen to have the capability to work like computers if you put in a lot of work.
Even if all you did was play games in the pre-smartphone era, those games were not optimized for addiction and microtransactions.
> Maybe it's the way games and apps are designed these days and attempt to hijack your attention
Very much this. I think a social media ban would have most of the benefits of a mobile phone ban.
While you mention FB, you do not say when, and I do not think it was always as addictive.
The other problem with phones is that thy are very much consumption devices. You are not going to build websites, let along games, on one.
> bullying that is pervasive based on your status and wealth often displayed as the latest iPhone, Playstations, etc and the chance of them being outcasts for not conforming to such structures.
The real solution there is to find a different environment for them. Unless its a really toxic environment, its not a big issue. Do you really want your kids to grow up with having to conform to status and wealth displays?
People also tend to overestimate this. lots of people said my kids would be ostracised because we did not have a TV. it was not a problem.
> While you mention FB, you do not say when, and I do not think it was always as addictive.
You're correct, I haven't logged into my account since 2018, but I am talking about the period from 2007-2013, now I am assuming since Meta has Facebook & Instagram & Whatsapp the UX would be more or less the same across platforms like stories/reels or some form of infinite looped community engagement.
> Unless its a really toxic environment, its not a big issue.
I think bullying exists everywhere, it ranges from being explicit, like everybody knows what is going on to very implicit bullying which involves people being iced out from social circles slowly but surely, but I agree with your point, I'll do my best to equip my children with tools to navigate such scenarios, since they exist in adulthood as well. Also these experiences are imo essential for character development ie; being sure about who you are and where you come from without being swept up in the beliefs of your peer group.
I tried writing C games when I was 12 and never got anywhere. I personally feel like I've cultivated quite the overgrowth of dopamine receptors now due to the access of the internet I had as a kid. Curiously, my parents tried to limit access for a long while, and for a long while, the desktop PC only had games and no internet. I do not think giving my child free access to the internet via a desktop would have a similar outcome to yours - not without replicating a whole lot of other environmental factors.
I vividly remember conflicts with my parents over sitting in my room in front of a computer. Potential benefits are never obvious, and certainly not to everyone. "Small C games" seem innocuous in hindsight (specially through the hn lense), but could easily have been center of debate and concern of well meaning parents back then.
You're absolutely right, thankfully my father was in the tech field back then and could very easily discern if I was wasting my time or actually learning/doing something.
Even then I was scolded quite a number of times to go do my homework ^_^
Creating a framework of communicating and channeling children's energy into a path that aids learning in today's attention/dopamine hungry world is something I'm still struggling with.
My neighbours have a way out of this for their 8yo, even though their intention was to just stay in touch as he plays outside unsupervised: smartwatch.
Functions perfectly well as a phone with some additional utilities, but doesn't draw the sort of attention an equivalent phone would if that's what you're going for.
Maybe it's the way games and apps are designed these days and attempt to hijack your attention, nearly all of them utilising a similar UX pattern (infinite scroll videos, stories, for example) and the effects it has on developing children could very well be magnitudes higher than how it affects adults severely stunting their intellectual growth. If adults are developing attention issues due to such patterns, can't imagine what it must do to children.
I think I'm just going to give them a dumbphone, like a cheap Nokia and computer access at home, but also something else to think about is bullying that is pervasive based on your status and wealth often displayed as the latest iPhone, Playstations, etc and the chance of them being outcasts for not conforming to such structures.