Hacker News Reader

Comment by ilrwbwrkhv | Hacker News Reader

Eventually we will look back at kids under 18 having phones and be shocked like how we are shocked now at the fact that kids were allowed to smoke.

View on HN

We said the same thing about books, and radio, and TV, and music (ahh Tipper), and the internet (dont give strangers your name, or get in their cars, but you know, uber).

Kids today cant be out of their parents sight, and when they are they are under the eye of Sauron aka someone's phone camera. And it's not like you can let your kids roam like when I was a kid. Some of the nonsense I did as a teen would have the FBI at my door today.

It's not the medium (the phone) that's the problem, it's the apps. I don't have kids, so I don't know exactly kinds of parental controls are in place, but from what I've seen, there aren't nearly enough to give parents guarantees about what their kids consume.

I agree it's more the apps than the medium, but it's still ALSO about the medium. The medium enables the apps because of (1) being in your pocket (2) having notifications (3) this one isn't talked about enough -- the wonderful tactile feedback feeling of seemingly zero latency when scrolling, pinching, etc on the touch screen

Of course, the addictive apps work on a chromebook too, but at least they're less portable and less pleasingly tactile, clunkier

i hope you are right. Things like TikTok are very unhealthy - and now every social media is trying to emulate them with their version of 'shorts'. But i am not sure if we will have the guts to stop this madness, new media and ad-tech are a very powerful force in politics.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/tiktok-me...

It really needs to be banned on a national level, just like underage drinking and smoking.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com