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Gonna risk the downvotes and qualify that I am a parent who keeps social media away from my kids: what big tech is peddling is IMHO not on the level of addictio

Gonna risk the downvotes and qualify that I am a parent who keeps social media away from my kids: what big tech is peddling is IMHO not on the level of addiction, carcinogenicity and all cause mortality as smoking. It's up to me to raise a mentally resilient kid, part of which is limiting their screen time, but it is not something I cut out altogether. It's not like I have some special parenting power to protect their lung epithelia.

tomcam 3y ago
I made a terrible mistake with my children at the dawn of social media. I would love it if you contacted me because I think you’re generally on the right course.
- lr4444lr 3y ago
  I really have no insight as to how to get the horse back into the barn, and suggest looking for professional help for yoyr kids. All I can tell you is that my kids do not ask for social media or even screens that much because I plan outings for them that are more interesting and exciting - and that isn't about spending a ton of money or going very far, just being creative about how to frame what we're doing. For example, when planning to go to the local pool, I make up a story about how at their age I was able to run across the pool in X seconds, and that if they can break my record 5 times, I'll take them out to a restaurant for dinner the next day. Then when we are there, I'll also break out some plastic water toys that I didn't tell them about. I just make family time more fun in terms of anticipation and surprises than being online.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    Too late for me. I just had some thoughts about how you might avoid some of the traps we didn’t.
    - forgetbook 3y ago
      Would you be willingto post them publicly/here?
      - tomcam 3y ago
        No. This is my real name.
joe_the_user 3y ago
I downvoted you specifically for the "risk the downvotes" line. I'm on HN a fair amount and there's never been anything like a strong sentiment that parent should expose their to social media as much as possible. Stop the posturing.
pharrington 3y ago
The threat model is different. An apt analogy is the difference between compromising a network by through software exploits, vs compromising a network via social engineering.

tomcam 3y ago

I made a terrible mistake with my children at the dawn of social media. I would love it if you contacted me because I think you’re generally on the right course.

lr4444lr 3y ago
I really have no insight as to how to get the horse back into the barn, and suggest looking for professional help for yoyr kids. All I can tell you is that my kids do not ask for social media or even screens that much because I plan outings for them that are more interesting and exciting - and that isn't about spending a ton of money or going very far, just being creative about how to frame what we're doing. For example, when planning to go to the local pool, I make up a story about how at their age I was able to run across the pool in X seconds, and that if they can break my record 5 times, I'll take them out to a restaurant for dinner the next day. Then when we are there, I'll also break out some plastic water toys that I didn't tell them about. I just make family time more fun in terms of anticipation and surprises than being online.
- tomcam 3y ago
  Too late for me. I just had some thoughts about how you might avoid some of the traps we didn’t.
  - forgetbook 3y ago
    Would you be willingto post them publicly/here?
    - tomcam 3y ago
      No. This is my real name.

joe_the_user 3y ago

I downvoted you specifically for the "risk the downvotes" line. I'm on HN a fair amount and there's never been anything like a strong sentiment that parent should expose their to social media as much as possible. Stop the posturing.

pharrington 3y ago

The threat model is different. An apt analogy is the difference between compromising a network by through software exploits, vs compromising a network via social engineering.