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ekjhgkejhgkyesterday at 5:58 PM1 replyview on HN

Uncertain if this is OT, but given that the CCC is politically inspired organization, I hope not:

One thing that still seems absent is awareness of the complete takeover of "gadgets" in schools. Schools these days, as early as primary school, shove screens in front of children. They're expected to look at them, and "use" them for various activities, including practicing handwriting. I wish I was joking [1].

I see two problems with this.

First is that these devices are engineered to be addictive by way of constant notifications/distractions, and learning is something that requires long sustained focus. There's a lot of data showing that under certain common circumstances, you do worse learning from a screen than from paper.

Second is implicitly it trains children to expect that anything has to be done through a screen connected to a closed point-and-click platform. (Uninformed) people will say "people who work with computers make money, so I want my child to have an ipad". But interacting with a closed platform like an ipad is removing the possibilities and putting the interaction "on rails". You don't learn to think, explore and learn from mistakes, instead you learn to use the app that's put in front of you. This in turn reinforces the "computer says no" [2] approach to understanding the world.

I think this is a matter of civil rights and freedom, but sadly I don't often see "civil rights" organizations talk about this. I think I heard Stallman say something along these lines once, but other than that I don't see campaigns anywhere.

[1] https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/

[2] https://youtu.be/eE9vO-DTNZc


Replies

AceJohnny2yesterday at 6:10 PM

It looks like you commented on the wrong post, although I don't immediately see a front-page post about the ongoing Chaos Computer Congress.

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