Should kids have smartphones?

[Dildo Argentino]

The bolded is precisely part of my issue and, again partly, reticent to allow my young children to have a smartphone.

The thing that RWHN doesn't seem to understand is that the potential for stimulation addiction is not caused by smartphones (or books, or drugs, or rock'n'roll), it is caused by bad parenting. And the problem won't be solved by more bad parenting (unreasonable coercion). In fact, it will make the problem worse. Of course, nobody here talked about foisting smartphones on unsuspecting toddlers: but once kids ask for them, provided we can afford them, there seems little reason to deny them.

I still suspect that the boredomless kids will grow up into somewhat different adults: but over the course of this thread I have actually come to agree with Alty: fuck Louis CK. Even if the total lack of boredom/involuntary loneliness deteriorates the capacity for autonomy somewhat (which is doubtful), being mean to one's kids surely does more damage.

[East Coast Hustle]

You don't understand, holist. The most important aspect of parenting is monitoring and controlling your children and making sure they don't get overexposed to the demon TEEVEE. Everything else just sort of takes care of itself.

[AFK]

The bolded is precisely part of my issue and, again partly, reticent to allow my young children to have a smartphone.

The thing that RWHN doesn't seem to understand is that the potential for stimulation addiction is not caused by smartphones (or books, or drugs, or rock'n'roll), it is caused by bad parenting. And the problem won't be solved by more bad parenting (unreasonable coercion). In fact, it will make the problem worse. Of course, nobody here talked about foisting smartphones on unsuspecting toddlers: but once kids ask for them, provided we can afford them, there seems little reason to deny them.

I still suspect that the boredomless kids will grow up into somewhat different adults: but over the course of this thread I have actually come to agree with Alty: fuck Louis CK. Even if the total lack of boredom/involuntary loneliness deteriorates the capacity for autonomy somewhat (which is doubtful), being mean to one's kids surely does more damage.

Not giving a kid every little possession they want =\= being a bad parent

[Telarus]

This comes from a work friend, who had an epiphany today while driving over a bridge in Portland (ha). I have to agree, my kiddo @ 14 would be drowning in trying to manage the freshman homework workload if it weren't for google drive, etc.

[Dildo Argentino]

RWHN is indeed correct in claiming that...

Not giving a kid every little possession they want =\= being a bad parent

For example, should one of my kids ask for a second smartphone (unlikely as that is), I would have no qualms whatsoever about denying them.

(Casting kids as pesky little wanting machines that need to be kept in place does equal bad parenting, in my book.)

[Dildo Argentino]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

Naw.  If it was simple agreement, I'd still be acting like Goddamn Don Rickles.   

[Dildo Argentino]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

Naw.  If it was simple agreement, I'd still be acting like Goddamn Don Rickles.   

Never said anything about simple! Question is, was it unsimple disagreement when you were acting like him?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

Naw.  If it was simple agreement, I'd still be acting like Goddamn Don Rickles.   

Never said anything about simple! Question is, was it unsimple disagreement when you were acting like him?

No, just being a dick.  Believe it or not, despite the words of my biographers, I have been known to be less than socially gregarious.

[Dildo Argentino]

Oh, fair enough

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This comes from a work friend, who had an epiphany today while driving over a bridge in Portland (ha). I have to agree, my kiddo @ 14 would be drowning in trying to manage the freshman homework workload if it weren't for google drive, etc.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

I didn't know when I started posting in this thread whether I agreed or disagreed.

PDers who get along well often disagree, and sometimes spectacularly. However, most of us try to avoid the perpetual nope, endless condescension in the face of citations that are provided, and refusing to hear what anyone else has to say thing.

[Dildo Argentino]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

I didn't know when I started posting in this thread whether I agreed or disagreed.

PDers who get along well often disagree, and sometimes spectacularly. However, most of us try to avoid the perpetual nope, endless condescension in the face of citations that are provided, and refusing to hear what anyone else has to say thing.

I really have neither time nor the inclination to go into whether I did that last time around or not. So let's say that I did. I'll avoid it in future. M'kay?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't think he's the new Holist.  I think he's the old Holist who wasn't surprised this time around by the bucket o' piranha poop that is PD.

Much more engaging fellow when he hasn't got half of creation lockjawed on his buttcheeks, I must say.

Having thought about this for a few days, I think the main difference is that we are discussing a topic we largely agree on (RWHN excepted) rather than one on which the majority of older PD denizens violently disagree with me.

I didn't know when I started posting in this thread whether I agreed or disagreed.

PDers who get along well often disagree, and sometimes spectacularly. However, most of us try to avoid the perpetual nope, endless condescension in the face of citations that are provided, and refusing to hear what anyone else has to say thing.

I really have neither time nor the inclination to go into whether I did that last time around or not. So let's say that I did. I'll avoid it in future. M'kay?

I am not saying you did or didn't. Reflecting more on the way people here respond to RWHN.

[Dildo Argentino]

Okay.

I'd like to get back to the narcissism thing. I think it is a thing, but I don't think it is caused by the networking technology. Much in the same way that TV could be a great thing for most if it mostly had good programmes on, and was still a great thing (before the interwebs began maturing) for the few who could actually sift the good bits from the tons of spoil, but became harmful for the many because it was hijacked by the exclusive interest in profit, social media as it is (FB and Twitter in particular) are successful in hijacking the interactive networking infrastructure in the interest of profit while nonchalantly damaging users. The analogy seems quite deep: for those who can tell gold from shit, those behemoths, while having some annoying characteristics that require workarounds, can be useful tools for maintaining social networks. For those susceptible to mindlessness, they are addictive and harmful.

Incidentally, as the young members of the band I am in don't really dig email, I've tentatively become an FB user myself. There are number of rather ominous things on there (I mean the way the system works, rather than the content): but I only noticed a few days ago, while browsing a friend's wall, that FB doesn't actually show me everything that those I'm friends with post for their friends. How is that? What algorythm decides what I get to see and what I don't? (Because checking those about 80 people's walls individually is just not feasible.) Should I start a new topic for that? Is it old hat? What's the story?