4 ms·

I don't think his argument makes a ton of sense. Children still interact through school, recess, sports, etc. Yes, they might post something hateful on Facebook

by rodly 13y ago

I don't think his argument makes a ton of sense. Children still interact through school, recess, sports, etc. Yes, they might post something hateful on Facebook or text something insulting to a friend but they still get to see the effects of their actions by comments. They still have to answer for their words the next day or right in the comment thread. No child wants to be excluded and will learn to play nice eventually. Phones can probably be related to board games or cards of the years past. Children have always found ways to keep to themselves when they're bored.

muzz 13y ago
Yes, CK is equating ownership with excessive use.
- coldtea 13y ago
  Which, statistically, it's pretty much correct.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    What statistics are those?
  - Ygg2 13y ago
    Which statistic? To me it's highly unlikely all people are excesive users. Like excessive users of Firefox with 5+ tabs are like 8-11%.
    - coldtea 13y ago
      My personal exhaustive statistics of nearly every kid with a phone I've seen. Where excessive = anything beyond taking the ocassional call, sending a few text messages and playing a game for half an hour. Some people think excessive has to mean "needs to be sedated before someone can take the phone off his hands".
      - Ygg2 13y ago
        That's a VERY bad exhaustive statistic. Kids that are annoying, are more visible than non-annoying kids. Therefore your mental recollection of such kids is biased towards kids that you find annoying. Seeing how American kids are very attention seeking driven, I don't see how it's better than the alternative. Kids screaming top of their lungs to attract attention.
  - rattray 13y ago
    Statistically may not be the right word when we don't have numbers here, but anecdotally it seems so correct to me that I'd settle for the word "empirically" here.
    - Helianthus 13y ago
      How about emphatically? :P
ahoge 13y ago
>Phones can probably be related to board games or cards of the years past. Except that phones are pretty much the opposite of that. Thanks to the magic of today's phones you won't have to deal with those boring people who happen to be in the same room as you.
- kohanz 13y ago
  Exactly. Board and card games involve face-to-face social interaction.
- lkbm 13y ago
  When I was a kid, I always brought a book with me when I went places. Portable entertainment is not new. Occasionally I'd bring a deck of cards and play solitaire if I anticipated being somewhere conducive to that. Our tendency to blame age-old problems on modern scapegoats usually reaffirms our biases, but less often is upheld by the data.
kohanz 13y ago
Are you implying that cyber-bullying (for lack of a better name, I don't much like it either) is not a real problem? I think we have ample evidence that it does present a unique problem. That being said, I think Louis CK's more important point is his latter one, that many people are becoming too dependent on their phones to fill the silence or quiet times in their day-to-day. I'm guilty of this too and I don't think it's healthy. I'm not saying we should all pull over in our cars and bawl to a Springsteen song, but there is something to be said for time for quiet thought and self reflection which is very easy to replace and lose when you're always checking to see what the latest is on Twitter or HN.
- rodly 13y ago
  That natural discourse for cyber bulling is to block those who continuously berate you online. If that's not an option, seek out an authority at your school or consider abandoning whichever mediums they're targeting. Bullying sucks though, sometimes the only solution is to wait it out and suffer through as little as possible of it. > That being said, I think Louis CK's more important point is his latter one, that many people are becoming too dependent on their phones to fill the silence or quiet times in their day-to-day. I respectfully disagree. If you ask your parents what they used to do when they had free time (silence, quiet time, whatever) they wouldn't tell you that they did some introspection. They'd say they went outside and climbed trees, they read a book or tried a puzzle, watched television and maybe even napped. The only reason children love to be on their phones more than those things previously mentioned, is because of how quickly stimulating a phone is. Complex and HD games, the sum of the worlds knowledge in a glowing rectangle, and instant communication with all of their friends. The older crowd just doesn't think it's natural. I don't blame them because frankly it does look a bit disturbing when you see a crowd of people glaring straight down into their phone when life is occurring all around them.

by rodly 13y ago

muzz 13y ago

Yes, CK is equating ownership with excessive use.

coldtea 13y ago
Which, statistically, it's pretty much correct.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  What statistics are those?
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Which statistic? To me it's highly unlikely all people are excesive users. Like excessive users of Firefox with 5+ tabs are like 8-11%.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    My personal exhaustive statistics of nearly every kid with a phone I've seen. Where excessive = anything beyond taking the ocassional call, sending a few text messages and playing a game for half an hour. Some people think excessive has to mean "needs to be sedated before someone can take the phone off his hands".
    - Ygg2 13y ago
      That's a VERY bad exhaustive statistic. Kids that are annoying, are more visible than non-annoying kids. Therefore your mental recollection of such kids is biased towards kids that you find annoying. Seeing how American kids are very attention seeking driven, I don't see how it's better than the alternative. Kids screaming top of their lungs to attract attention.
- rattray 13y ago
  Statistically may not be the right word when we don't have numbers here, but anecdotally it seems so correct to me that I'd settle for the word "empirically" here.
  - Helianthus 13y ago
    How about emphatically? :P

ahoge 13y ago

>Phones can probably be related to board games or cards of the years past. Except that phones are pretty much the opposite of that. Thanks to the magic of today's phones you won't have to deal with those boring people who happen to be in the same room as you.

kohanz 13y ago
Exactly. Board and card games involve face-to-face social interaction.
lkbm 13y ago
When I was a kid, I always brought a book with me when I went places. Portable entertainment is not new. Occasionally I'd bring a deck of cards and play solitaire if I anticipated being somewhere conducive to that. Our tendency to blame age-old problems on modern scapegoats usually reaffirms our biases, but less often is upheld by the data.

kohanz 13y ago

Are you implying that cyber-bullying (for lack of a better name, I don't much like it either) is not a real problem? I think we have ample evidence that it does present a unique problem. That being said, I think Louis CK's more important point is his latter one, that many people are becoming too dependent on their phones to fill the silence or quiet times in their day-to-day. I'm guilty of this too and I don't think it's healthy. I'm not saying we should all pull over in our cars and bawl to a Springsteen song, but there is something to be said for time for quiet thought and self reflection which is very easy to replace and lose when you're always checking to see what the latest is on Twitter or HN.

rodly 13y ago
That natural discourse for cyber bulling is to block those who continuously berate you online. If that's not an option, seek out an authority at your school or consider abandoning whichever mediums they're targeting. Bullying sucks though, sometimes the only solution is to wait it out and suffer through as little as possible of it. > That being said, I think Louis CK's more important point is his latter one, that many people are becoming too dependent on their phones to fill the silence or quiet times in their day-to-day. I respectfully disagree. If you ask your parents what they used to do when they had free time (silence, quiet time, whatever) they wouldn't tell you that they did some introspection. They'd say they went outside and climbed trees, they read a book or tried a puzzle, watched television and maybe even napped. The only reason children love to be on their phones more than those things previously mentioned, is because of how quickly stimulating a phone is. Complex and HD games, the sum of the worlds knowledge in a glowing rectangle, and instant communication with all of their friends. The older crowd just doesn't think it's natural. I don't blame them because frankly it does look a bit disturbing when you see a crowd of people glaring straight down into their phone when life is occurring all around them.