4 ms·

My daughter attended a Waldorf school (in Europe I believe they are called Steiner schools, after the founder, Rudolph Steiner). There were good things about it

My daughter attended a Waldorf school (in Europe I believe they are called Steiner schools, after the founder, Rudolph Steiner). There were good things about it and bad things, and I know the experience varies a lot with the particular school and the particular teacher you draw (the same cohort of kids and the same teacher travel grades 1-8 together). My daughter had an amazing teacher so overall I'm happy with the experience. One of their policies, something we had to literally sign on to, was that our kids would not consume any mass media: no TVs, no movie theaters, no radio, no laptop, no cellphone. That policy long predates laptops and cell phones. The net effect is that Waldorf families can be friends only with other Waldorf families otherwise (a) people think your kid is weird, (b) you are a cruel parent, (c) your kid will want to spend all their time at Jane's house doing nothing but watching TV. It is one of the aspects of their approach that I really appreciated and had a notable effect on the kids' behavior. Bored? Draw something. Go outside and lift up some rocks and see what is crawling underneath them. Build a fort out of found objects. See if you can stack rocks and make an arch. I've seen this happen on the playground: a kid grinds two limestone rocks together to make powder, collects it on a leaf, and pretends the powder is a magic potion; rather than being ridiculed, the other kids immediately take up the fiction and run with it. 8th grade is where they loosen the policy half way, then the next year they say there are no requirements but it is still good to try to keep it to a minimum. All of the kids were thirsty for phones by then and they get pretty sucked into it. That was 10 years ago, and the net effect on me is that I have no desire to watch TV and rarely watch movies. Having an eight year break without it taught me I'm not missing much. I work from home so I don't experience any awkward moments being culturally out of the loop at the office water cooler. The only social media accounts I have are youtube (I'm there for the content, not the comments) and HN. I believe I'm happier for it.

winternett 4y ago
IF you run a business that you need to promote, there is no real way around using social media to promote it in some capacity. If you are rich, you can probably just hire a marketing firm to handle the seedy underbelly of it all I guess. The problem I notice frequently with the world now is that too many people are rooted in reality by their own perceptions and understanding, and they can't understand the experiences and struggles of others. It's so comfortable to project the attitude of "It's fine for me, therefore it's fine for everyone else" that it disrupts debate and resolution of meaningful problems our world faces. We're all so used to bonding with others that have our exact same composition and outlook, that wen end up being blind to others that don't fit into that. We need to stop using individual tropes like this to dismiss and answer problems, they are really not applicable to the issue for so many others, and really not helpful in discussions. For many people around the world, finding 5$ a day for dinner based on social media posting success would dramatically change their quality of life. Social media companies literally make Billions of dollars, and share VERY LITTLE of it with contributors... Opportunity in this world is shrinking along with all the other crises many struggling people face, the matter is much larger than turning off TVs and preventing kids from using devices in schools. No offense intended, But to act as if you can simply "turn it all off" and enjoy life is not an option for many many people... Walk in the shoes of others here, look at discussions through different glasses than your own.
- tasty_freeze 4y ago
  > No offense intended, OK, here it comes ... > Walk in the shoes of others here, look at discussions through different glasses than your own. Reread my post. I was relating my experience, one that is atypical. I said what effect it had on me, and didn't tell anyone else what they should be doing. That seems to have offended you to the point that you are telling me how to behave, which is just rich. I'm very sorry my anecdote is disrupting debate and resolution of the meaningful problems our world faces.
  - winternett 4y ago
    Please don't take it personally, I don't know anything about you. It's mainly a reply addressing how yours is a common response on the matter, while social media encompasses a wide variety of perspectives by nature, that aren't well suited to individual tropes. I assure you, no personal offense or attack was intended by my response, I am just posting based on the issues involved. It's a very large issue of concern for pretty much everyone on the Internet.

winternett 4y ago

IF you run a business that you need to promote, there is no real way around using social media to promote it in some capacity. If you are rich, you can probably just hire a marketing firm to handle the seedy underbelly of it all I guess. The problem I notice frequently with the world now is that too many people are rooted in reality by their own perceptions and understanding, and they can't understand the experiences and struggles of others. It's so comfortable to project the attitude of "It's fine for me, therefore it's fine for everyone else" that it disrupts debate and resolution of meaningful problems our world faces. We're all so used to bonding with others that have our exact same composition and outlook, that wen end up being blind to others that don't fit into that. We need to stop using individual tropes like this to dismiss and answer problems, they are really not applicable to the issue for so many others, and really not helpful in discussions. For many people around the world, finding 5$ a day for dinner based on social media posting success would dramatically change their quality of life. Social media companies literally make Billions of dollars, and share VERY LITTLE of it with contributors... Opportunity in this world is shrinking along with all the other crises many struggling people face, the matter is much larger than turning off TVs and preventing kids from using devices in schools. No offense intended, But to act as if you can simply "turn it all off" and enjoy life is not an option for many many people... Walk in the shoes of others here, look at discussions through different glasses than your own.

tasty_freeze 4y ago
> No offense intended, OK, here it comes ... > Walk in the shoes of others here, look at discussions through different glasses than your own. Reread my post. I was relating my experience, one that is atypical. I said what effect it had on me, and didn't tell anyone else what they should be doing. That seems to have offended you to the point that you are telling me how to behave, which is just rich. I'm very sorry my anecdote is disrupting debate and resolution of the meaningful problems our world faces.
- winternett 4y ago
  Please don't take it personally, I don't know anything about you. It's mainly a reply addressing how yours is a common response on the matter, while social media encompasses a wide variety of perspectives by nature, that aren't well suited to individual tropes. I assure you, no personal offense or attack was intended by my response, I am just posting based on the issues involved. It's a very large issue of concern for pretty much everyone on the Internet.