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TikTok is ruining kids brains same way as rock’n’roll did in 50s, MTV did in 90s, and video games did in 2000s
by buryat 5y ago
TikTok is ruining kids brains same way as rock’n’roll did in 50s, MTV did in 90s, and video games did in 2000s
- Bayart 5y agoIt's not because those are things we have positive emotional associations with from of our childhood that they're actually positive things. I for one would have rather never played video games or watched MTV. You remember those old farts, annoying everybody with their sanctimonious imprecations about video games ? They were right.
- pjc50 5y ago> I for one would have rather never played video games or watched MTV. This is rather sad; would you rather have been prevented from them? What would you prefer to have been made to do?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Bayart 5y agoGo out, socialize with other kids, experience a broader variety of things, grow up. I'm now absolutely certain my using video games as an excuse to stay inside as a teenager and young adult severely delayed my emotional and social growth. I was always a rather solitary kid but there was no merit in reinforcing those habits.
- Grustaf 5y agoFew things are as useless as watching TV and playing video games. Especially when you're young, the world is your oyster, you should hang out with friends and do things in the real world. Yes, playing video games occasionally with friends or watching the odd film can be good things but that's obviously not what we're talking about here. I'm very happy most of my childhood memories revolve around tree houses, bicycles and gangs of friends roaming the streets.
- FredPret 5y agoSpot on. I wish I “played” in my 20’s by starting side businesses in real life rather than ones that only exist on a tiny piece of silicon.
- FredPret 5y agoI'm with you 100% on this one. I wish I never picked up that first game when I was 6. I wasted so much time especially in my 20's racking up idiotic "achievements" that exist only in a Factorio savegame and other similarly irrelevant places.
- Grustaf 5y agoI completely agree with your sentiment, but it's important to be aware of the real problem. Most people, opponents and supporters of video games alike, tend to discuss if the activity itself is harmful - does it make us desensitised to violence etc, but the real issue is what you are NOT doing when you play those games. If a child doesn't have easy access to cheap thrills from a video game, she will start using her imagination, draw something, go to a friend, come up with some mischief. Time is limited, and childhood is the most precious thing in the world, don't waste it.
- Gene_Parmesan 5y agoNah, not really. Video games have been shown to be very good at increasing problem solving, planning, and fine motor skills. The problem is parents (including mine) who didn't/don't put reasonable limits on their use. A kid who plays video games a couple hours per week is going to turn out just fine. I think there are also serious qualitative differences between games in the 90s/00s and mobile freemium games of today.
- FredPret 5y agoPracticing problem solving skills in the simplified and consequence-free video game world is very useful at a very young age. But young minds must switch over to solving problems in the far richer and more complicated real world as soon as possible.
- jdavis703 5y agoI don’t believe rock & roll, music videos or violent video games rot children’s brains (those were moral panics). But the current generation of social media and certain kinds of video game designs are absolutely designed to be addictive. I don’t think culture war stuff is comparable to people engineering software for dopamine hits.
- pjc50 5y ago> I don’t think culture war stuff is comparable to people engineering software for dopamine hits. It should be noted that most culture war stuff is itself engineered for an emotional "hit", although usually an angry one.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoAt least a music video or song is three minutes long. That’s an eternity to a Tik Tok brain and they will become uncomfortable having to concentrate that long.
- samhw 5y agoRule #382: You can translate 'kids these days' commentary from one generation to the next by simply substituting $newthing for $oldthing, and inserting a new value of $newthing. For instance: 1990s: Kids these days wouldn't have the attention span to {read a book}. All they can do is {watch music videos}. 2020s: Kids these days wouldn't have the attention span to {watch a music video}. All they can do is {browse TikTok}.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoBut what you said happened and is happening. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2687861 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2687861
- ImprobableTruth 5y agoYa know, this would be a lot more comforting if the attention span required for each new medium wasn't lower and lower...
- blocked_again 5y agoDo kids used to watch MTV for hours daily in 90s? Do they used to watch MTV in School? Do they used to watch MTV while waiting for bus? Was their classmates all making videos for MTV?
- throwaway34241 5y ago> Do kids used to watch MTV for hours daily in 90s? Not MTV exclusively, but yes I knew kids (in elementary school!) that watched TV for hours every day (although I didn’t grow up with that habit). Pretty sure the same hours-a-day thing was true for video games as well, although in my view at least that’s not totally passive and was sometimes social (kids playing against each other in person).
- blocked_again 5y ago> Not MTV exclusively, but yes I knew kids (in elementary school!) Which I suppose was a small minority. Defintely not the case with TikTok.
- throwaway34241 5y agoThe the statistic that was bandied about at the time was 5hrs of TV a day on average, across all Americans. I don’t have a number for kids but of course they had more free time than working adults. That seems to fit with this recent data [1], which shows the average as still high but lower in the younger demographic. It has the 65+ group as 7+ hrs/day on average, which seems mildly horrifying considering half of people are likely above that. But perhaps not surprising - especially with the obesity rates being what they are, many people may not be very mobile at that age. [1] https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by-us-adults/ https://www.statista.com/chart/15224/daily-tv-consumption-by...
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoSure - in the same way Fentanyl is essentially Aspirin.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]