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Deleting social media was trivial for me as an old man. I don't really care that much what people are doing and if I missed out on party invites I doubt I would

Deleting social media was trivial for me as an old man. I don't really care that much what people are doing and if I missed out on party invites I doubt I would have went anyway. I haven't been on Facebook in 10 years and have never been on Tiktok or Instagram. It is a completely different story though if I think of myself at 16. Teenage years were tough enough without anyone having social media. To be one of the outcast without social media is inconceivable. This is a total failure by adults to have put kids in this position. The craziest thing to me is that we don't just put the same limits on children on Tiktok that they do in China. It is as if children were getting free, unlimited cookies sent to them in the mail and we do nothing because "cookies taste good". "What do you want me to do? Kids love cookies!"

steve_adams_86 3y ago
That’s absolutely on point. It seems to me like we’re unable to connect these dots so easily though, and we let a lot of these “cookies” infiltrate our lives readily. We understand eating too many sweets is bad for us, bad for kids, but we seem to struggle to identify why that is and why so many other things in life stimulate the same neural paths and responses. I try to tell my kids all the time (paraphrasing myself): the best cookies are the ones you earn. The worst ones are the ones you acquire easily. Riding up a mountain so you can ride down it, ripping around the trails and getting air, coming out the bottom still lightheaded with excitement is incredible. The way up can be hell, sometimes you wonder what you were thinking, but at the end of it all you want more! That’s what the brain needs. Video games and infiniscrolling on the other hand… Some of the same reward pathways are hit, but there’s no substance there. Just a bag of free cookies that makes you ill. Edit: I love video games, I’m definitely not saying they’re ruining children or anything. But I mean, video games after a day of getting stuff done and having nothing left on your plate is going to feel like a great reward. Waking up and playing until you feel like a human slug, anxiety ridden about all the stuff you didn’t accomplish… That’s a problem. Not because video games specifically, either.

steve_adams_86 3y ago

That’s absolutely on point. It seems to me like we’re unable to connect these dots so easily though, and we let a lot of these “cookies” infiltrate our lives readily. We understand eating too many sweets is bad for us, bad for kids, but we seem to struggle to identify why that is and why so many other things in life stimulate the same neural paths and responses. I try to tell my kids all the time (paraphrasing myself): the best cookies are the ones you earn. The worst ones are the ones you acquire easily. Riding up a mountain so you can ride down it, ripping around the trails and getting air, coming out the bottom still lightheaded with excitement is incredible. The way up can be hell, sometimes you wonder what you were thinking, but at the end of it all you want more! That’s what the brain needs. Video games and infiniscrolling on the other hand… Some of the same reward pathways are hit, but there’s no substance there. Just a bag of free cookies that makes you ill. Edit: I love video games, I’m definitely not saying they’re ruining children or anything. But I mean, video games after a day of getting stuff done and having nothing left on your plate is going to feel like a great reward. Waking up and playing until you feel like a human slug, anxiety ridden about all the stuff you didn’t accomplish… That’s a problem. Not because video games specifically, either.