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Comment by Mirioron | Hacker News Reader

What I find really interesting is that if this problem is so common, then won't the kids who don't spend so much time behind a screen be the odd ones out? I wonder what impact that is going to have on their life. Perhaps teens that spend all that time looking at screens will be better at looking at screens once they become adults?

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It’s possible that they are the odd ones out without “screen skills”. I’m actually betting that kids who spend most of their time away from screens will have some weird, competitive advantage in a future economy.

I would think that it's the opposite. I think the kids with significantly less screen time to no screen time will be like the people who never learned to drive. Doing many things is more difficult for them unless they're rich.

I don't think having a deeply engrained reflex to open youtube or tiktok or whatever the nanosecond you're start loosing attention on whatever you are currently doing will enrich peoples lives. Sure, some will use the tools productively. But most will fall victim to the most effective pleasure industry mankind has come up with so far.

This totally nails it. My wife and I very carefully control our kids' (13 and 14) screen hours to make sure they're engaging with real people in the real world and not thoughtlessly pulling out a phone every two minutes. But even with restrictions, they manage about an hour of screen time a day, and they're still superbly capable at handling whatever device they happen to be using. They're in no way disadvantaged from a 'computer skills' POV.

I agree with this theory, and I think we're seeing some of it with the trades. Digital natives are competing in a global marketplace with millions of others, while local tradespeople are competing with the other people in town.

> I’m actually betting that kids who spend most of their time away from screens will have some weird, competitive advantage in a future economy.

That's certainly possible. I'm sure most people here were the odd balls growing up, doing the opposite of what other kids were doing.

Yep! You can’t send your kids out to play anymore because all their friends are home glued to phones or video game screens. A friend told her kids to go play outside and an hour later, found them sitting on the front step playing games on a handheld device.

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