Socrates bemoaned those young’ns who had the audacity to read their Homer, instead of memorizing it.

Children and Radio

  • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Eh, there is sufficient evidence to recommend children and teenagers having limited internet and social media access during their formative years at this point.

    The tiktok algorithm of mindless doomscrolling funny little bits all short and digestible for a decaying attention span is just the most egregious example why restrictions should at least be considered.

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You could say that about a lot of things, though. Video games and TV were commonly criticized this way. And it was a popular meme on Reddit that people would be so addicted to the site that they’d spend hours scrolling it.

      Criticizing tik tok is just popular on sites like this because people here really don’t like tik tok.

      At any rate, parents can already try to restrict their children’s access. But governments are gonna have a hard time doing so without hurting everyone as a whole (eg, see the attempts of some US states to require giving your ID to porn sites). Dunno if you remember being a kid, but I found my way around every restriction my parents set and I just disliked them for it.

      • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        You realize that’s still true, right? You’re posting this as some big own as though it’s somehow not harmful to mindlessly consume any form of media to an extreme extent, especially in the learning years.

        Somebody been watching too many tik toks?

        • Bipta@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Somebody been watching too many tik toks

          What a ridiculous logical leap.

          • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            How is it hypocrisy if the previous forms of media were also bad for you, Tik-Tok is just more efficient at funneling meaningless drivel down your throat?

            • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Exactly. We’ve also been saying that burning coal was destroying the climate, and then we said CFCs were destroying the ozone, and then we said massive deforestation is ruining the climate…doesn’t make any of them less true just because we’ve said similar beings about less efficient means of destruction.

              • Bipta@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                I think that’s generally a good argument, however the rate and level of dopamine hits from TikTok and YouTube Shorts may far surpass that of prior mediums and so actually warrant additional considerations and precautions.

                But then, I may just be an old man.

              • STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                It may be hypocritical, but have you considered that all of these forms of entertainment are unhealthy? The only difference is that they get more and more efficient with each generation, causing increasing levels of concern from each generation. That’s indicative of a rising trend

              • papertowels@lemmy.one
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                1 year ago

                Fwiw I actively believe that reddit is responsible for shortening my attention span.

                It is not hypocritical to call out tik tok for doing the same.

          • some_guy@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            “I’m not saying it’s true I just wanted to imply it’s true to drive enragement engagement”

      • ylph@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The kids always adapt though.

        There is a strong survivorship bias in this though. Some kids do adapt, maybe even most, but many still are harmed, and have been by unhealthy exposure to radio, television, videogames, etc. in the past. Social media is even wreaking havoc in the older generations right now.

        It’s easy to point at the survivors and the success stories and say see, there is nothing to worry about - but that’s also a bit like pointing at the lifelong smokers who do not get lung cancer as an argument against promoting non-smoking.

      • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes, the trend of making more and more mentally disruptive technology has been continuing. Yes, capitalists have managed to make more and more effective attention/brain drains…that’s exactly what we’re saying.

        The kids “adapt” in that the world has changed and kids have no choice but to live in the world they grew up in. It doesn’t mean the above things aren’t true. It just means things change, and I dunno about you, but I don’t see things moving in the most positive direction. Angrier people, less and less able to have nuanced discussions, people becoming more entrenched and hostile about their views, more instances of thinking people with differing opinions are “evil…”—that shit is in large part due to social media, not to mention network news (both “advancements” of the exact type were discussing).I mean, shit, look how much radio has changed. From old timey radio broadcasts with the family sitting around the fire hearing tales of Redd McGibbon and Bullet to fuckin Howard stern making strippers do math so people can laugh at them and goddamn Rush Limbaugh. See what we’re saying?

  • Surp@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Tiktok definitely doesn’t fall into anything intelligent that’s for sure.

    • Atomdude@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I spend a lot of time on TikTok and once the algorithm knows what you like it’s a fantastic way to waste your time, the same way reddit and YouTube are.

      • quadropiss@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They were making a typical “TikTok bad brain rot user stupid cringe natural selection🤓☝️” “joke”. Don’t bother explaining that to them because they don’t care

  • Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    They’re not wrong. Screen time is known to be harmful to children. And radio time may have been as well: hard to say, because kids aren’t listening to that kind of radio anymore. Two things can be true at once: pointing fingers at something that doesn’t apply anymore (when’s the last time you listened to a radio serial?) doesn’t invalidate the harms today.

    Here’s what the actual experts say:

    https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx

    • craftyindividual@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Talk radio still rots a lot of brains of all ages. It’s insidious as a lot of folks still have that on in the background while driving to work or cooking etc, as compared to video and TV where you have to look directly at it and think about the message received with your whole brain.

  • Cam@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Tiktok is digitial media, the attention span is the issue, not the media format.

    I know a few people who admitted to me without me even probing them that they cannot handle watching or listening to a video over 1 minute long.

    I am not for censoring Tiktok, however I will never used it since its horrible on privacy and has “back doors” to a powerful and malicious government. And I like videos that are long with good discussion or information.

    • zovits@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No, tiktok is not digital media. It’s a chinese cyber warfare weapon of mass destruction.

      • Cam@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think your right about that. It can be used to divide and subvert the west, but American big tech platforms do the same domestically and abroad.

      • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        You’re correct that it has been overblown in the past. That does not invalidate what is occurring, doubly so since we have scientific proof now.

        You are equating “Old man yells at cloud” to “hundreds of nuclear scientists says cloud of radioactive gas is harmful and here are dozens of papers proving it.”

        They are not the same thing.

  • RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    To be fair as someone who over my life has transitioned from reading, to the internet, to videos, to short form content. it does have an effect on your attention span.

    My advice. Do what you will, but never stop reading. Pick up some books.

  • Fades@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    TikTok conditions you to process media very quickly, id it doesn’t catch you within a few seconds you’re on the next one — that sort of thing then applies access the board and not only when browsing TT

    Especially since children are still developing their brains this makes it even more problematic

  • Archmage Azor@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    TikTok, Social media, video games, rock and metal music, rap music, Dungeons and Dragons, Rock ‘n’ Roll, movies, phones, bikes, novels, older generations will always chose a scapegoat to focus on

    Eventually it will be our turn

  • soviettaters@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Just so you know, newspapers used to be pretty terrible in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were ripe with exaggerations and sometimes downright lies. The issue with TikTok and social media in general is how easy it is for absolute idiots to spread lies and harmful information to children (and naïve adults).

    Here’s an article on the topic from the New York Public Library.

    • Tar_alcaran@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If I sold newspapers, and I heard the radio spreading the news as well, you bet your ass I’m going to slander the shit out of it.

      Which is why lots of people believe the storiea abour “War of the Worlds”. Because of newspaper lies.

    • Ad4mWayn3@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      newspapers used to be pretty terrible in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

      Periodism is still terrible, not in the form of newspapers, but the internet, and it’s why you usually end your searches with a ‘reddit’ at the end (hopefully lemmy will fully replace that soon)

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Is that even unique to social media? We have “news” sites that do the same thing (like the various alt right ones). If the goal is to tackle misinformation, we should tackle misinformation directly.

  • STUPIDVIPGUY@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    The fact that people have been concerned about this for generations doesn’t automatically nullify the point. Attention and focus are skills which children must develop through boredom and long-form focus. TikTok brain is making that harder and harder for children to learn.

    • Moonrise2473@feddit.it
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      1 year ago

      and now they’re able to memorize all the dances/emotes from a specific influencer/streamer. Almost the same, no?

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No.

        Like not even close. Even if we aren’t judging each on the difficulty of memorizing a two second emote or dance versus an entire novel, things that are physical are more easily learned.

        Ask yourself this, did they have to commit themselves to memorizing all of if? No, they casually memorized them all through watching it. No one has ever casually memorized a novel on accident.

        Plus memorizing literature is unquestionably more valuable than learning what some micro-celebrity that doesn’t fucking matter is making faces about.

      • Ace T'Ken@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I don’t know. It’s probably apocryphal, but I just stole what he had said in the title.

  • amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Tiktok is not comparable to these other technologies, as TikTok uses an individualized algorithm to manipulate its users.