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Who cares? Let them figure it out for themselves for once, self control is only learned through binging and gorging on the sweet stuff until it hurts. I loopho

Who cares? Let them figure it out for themselves for once, self control is only learned through binging and gorging on the sweet stuff until it hurts. I loopholed my way out of school in grade 7, and for two years after that, I did nothing but watch anime, the crudest and sickest misogynist anime you could lay your eyes on; you would assume I learned nothing from that, but you'd be wrong. Turns out that if you watch enough anime, you start picking up Japanese whether you like it or not. That binge taught me a skill that helped me, in addition to the computational skills required to pirate so much anime on mere ADSL, get a first job at 17, with income competitive to that of both of my legal guardians, and every last one of my contemporaries. No matter how much you think they're just loitering around with no aim, they have passions, and soon they'll have developed pre-frontal cortices that can bring them closer to what they love. It won't have anything to do with your strict prohibition of everything they enjoy. What will save them is those precious daylight hours they spend truant from your mind-numbing institutions.

mercer 12y ago
Consider substance addiction. Being a heroin addict might actually teach you how to hide things, steal things, and stick needles into yourself without dying. And eventually you might clean up, 'grow' out of it and use what you've learned for good. And yet I think most people would agree that prohibiting or strongly discouraging heroin use, at least by children, a good thing. Obviously heroin is an extreme example. My point is that the things we enjoy lie on a continuum, and with some of these things it's good to discourage or even prohibit, and not 'let people figure it out for themselves', especially not at a young age. Computer use probably covers most of this continuum. Non-stop candy-crush? Probably more on the bad side of things. Games that involve group activity (WoW, etc.)? Probably a lot better. Games that also involve creation and even 'programming' such as Minecraft? Even better. When you let children do what they want, there's no guarantee that they will gravitate towards the good stuff in the same way that letting children eat what they want is unlikely to turn them into adults with healthy diets. Finding the balance between letting children discover for themselves and strictly prohibiting their behavior is very tricky. And that's why it's good to care about these things and discuss them.

mercer 12y ago

Consider substance addiction. Being a heroin addict might actually teach you how to hide things, steal things, and stick needles into yourself without dying. And eventually you might clean up, 'grow' out of it and use what you've learned for good. And yet I think most people would agree that prohibiting or strongly discouraging heroin use, at least by children, a good thing. Obviously heroin is an extreme example. My point is that the things we enjoy lie on a continuum, and with some of these things it's good to discourage or even prohibit, and not 'let people figure it out for themselves', especially not at a young age. Computer use probably covers most of this continuum. Non-stop candy-crush? Probably more on the bad side of things. Games that involve group activity (WoW, etc.)? Probably a lot better. Games that also involve creation and even 'programming' such as Minecraft? Even better. When you let children do what they want, there's no guarantee that they will gravitate towards the good stuff in the same way that letting children eat what they want is unlikely to turn them into adults with healthy diets. Finding the balance between letting children discover for themselves and strictly prohibiting their behavior is very tricky. And that's why it's good to care about these things and discuss them.