Discussion
I hate with a passion any kind of reporting that describes problems among teenagers as caused by "screen time". It depicts it as some kind of flaw among young people who deliberately spend too much time on their phones.
Call it for what it is: abusive practices by a handful of tech corporations. They profit from products deliberately designed to create addiction, and particularly so among children and teenagers.
Stop blaming victims and start blaming the perpetrators.
@gabrielesvelto also real world kinda sucks, and who decided to make it so? *angry goose noises*
@gabrielesvelto I would also add it as a responsibility of abusive behavior by drivers. A lot of kids would love to be literally anywhere else but don't feel like they can walk/bike/bus anywhere and too many drivers feel like only fully competent adults should be allowed in public.
@gabrielesvelto I think that screens have become allies in parenthood, because there are people who every day see their salary floor undermined, their stressful working conditions, their cities adapted to adulthood (and where being an infant is an inconvenience); and where the attention for being a present parent competes with a lifetime of everyday discomforts.
On the other hand, one could say that 'millionaires have a lot of free time to be better parents', but there it is Elon Musk to prove that they can also be assholes in that area.
It's not just kids. Adults are addicted too. We're all addicted. These tech bros are evil people.
@gabrielesvelto I was reading about the Outside Lands pop music festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. There were complaints about teenagers attending.
It's a music festival in a public park in the summer. Of course teenagers would attend. That's the point!
The complaints about teens and "screen time" are complaints that teens are having any social interaction at all through practically the only means of social interaction they're allowed.
Substitute "find out" with "deal with".
@gabrielesvelto so much problems are not as described. You have to think the other way round.
Disabilities are often bad design descisions and so on.
@gabrielesvelto It's par for the course when it comes to how we discuss any kind of addiction.
We don't think through and think about how difficult it is to actually stay off it. The "harmful" screen time is the same as the necessary-to function-in-society screen time. It's not just a matter of "try harder to be good."
@gabrielesvelto or blame the parents for poor parenting
@gabrielesvelto it also leaves out the other half of the equation which is that children/teens are no longer permitted or able to move about the world independently with their peers. They can’t “go out and play” so what options do they have? Screens.
@gabrielesvelto And we are told to look the other way at what fox news has done to the parent generation.
@gabrielesvelto Same, I am fed up with this low-effort reporting that confuses problems with symptoms
@gabrielesvelto
Yes, it's called the Fundamental Attribution Error and it allows the system/perpetrators to continue to get away with what they're doing as long as our attention and efforts remain focused on the wrong thing. The system has become very good at distracting people.
@gabrielesvelto The thing about screen time is it's easy to measure and easy to restrict.
It's like looking for your lost keys under the streetlamp because the light's better there.
@gabrielesvelto It's also equating a medium (for reading, learning, social interaction, artistic expression, self-discovery, evasion of malicious authority, etc.) with one particular low-value use of that medium (brainrot drivel).
@gabrielesvelto It's also equating a medium (for reading, learning, social interaction, artistic expression, self-discovery, evasion of malicious authority, etc.) with one particular low-value use of that medium (brainrot drivel).
@dalias yes and also deliberately deflects what is causing the addiction. It's like saying that people who suffer from alcoholism have a problem with "bottle time".
@gabrielesvelto @dalias I love this analogy. The real problem with heroin is all that needle time.
@mhoye @gabrielesvelto Diabetics are getting way too much needle time.
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@gabrielesvelto
The other elephant(s) in the room are economic precarity and the aftereffects of the pandemic disruption, tbh.
There's also been a social change. In the 2000s, when I was a tween/teen, we would play sports and hang out in the street.
Now I live in a street with lots of kids around, and I never see them. So many kids aren't allowed out on their own. What else are they going to do?