logoalt Hacker News

delichonyesterday at 2:37 PM3 repliesview on HN

On the question of whether to legislate the ban, I'm a no. On the question of whether parents should implement it, I'm a yes. My niece and her husband have a one year old that is allowed zero screen time. They are willing and able to forego the high tech baby sitting, and are talking about continuing until at least the pre-teens. I think that if they could go even further, say live for the next decade with the Amish, it would be even better.

If a kid was raised with his family in a dome where no technology later than 1900 were permitted (perhaps with an emergency medicine exception) and the kid wasn't released into the world until 13, I think on average they'd be mentally healthier and have a happier life.


Replies

hefnstjetkegmyesterday at 2:46 PM

That is extremely short-sighted to assume that because a few anecdotes on “how to parent” will fix the problem. I recommend you go out in public and observe the reality in various states and in various demographics and you’ll quickly see that the parents are just as addicted as the kids. They won’t know how to parent this away without legislation.

Just go into the classroom and witness children and their six-seveeen.

This is 100% like smoking except worse, because entire population of children are being deprived of their attention span. They just learn how to peddle useless products onto their peers without brain development to understand the consequence.

show 1 reply
jswelkeryesterday at 2:50 PM

Your niece and her husband are one in a thousand parents. Very few have the fortitude to do it. Not a good outlook for the future if we depend on the virtue of parents.

iamnothereyesterday at 2:55 PM

I concur with this. I’d even be okay with government-sponsored PSAs about social media use as long as it’s based on sound research. But a ban is a hard no due to the First Amendment.