Technology Addiction
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- monospaced8
My son is now past 18 months, and I'm proud to say that to date he has had almost no contact with a mobile device or computer. To him, mobile phones are not games or entertainment or anything beyond a lock screen or maybe the calculator. TV is given sparingly, and we don't open our laptops in front of him. It might be all for not, but we like that he's getting a more analog upbringing for now. He'll have the rest of his life to be bombarded by technology.
There are a few reasons we're doing this. One is that we simply want to avoid technology addiction in general. Another is perception: when you see a baby or toddler with their face in a tablet, ignoring the world around them all day, it just looks sad. I don't want to be that parent.
Another, and more critical, is that there are studies now coming out showing that the newer generations have very serious issues related to technology exposure at young ages, and there's a huge push among progressive families to eliminate screens altogether. The Silicon Valley elite — responsible for the creation of this beast — are raising their kids without it. Sends a clear signal to us.
But mostly, I don't see any fucking point in giving this little person today's technology. In a few years it'll all be different anyway, so whatever they use now is pointless, in my opinion. For now I'm content with our analog play and life experiences, with the occasional movie or show, and we'll let technology take its hold at a later time.
- The byproduct of all this is that technology is relegated to work and logistics (travel, comms, etc), and life is more enjoyable. Highly recommend it.monospaced
- That a very good moveBennn
- Good stuff mono, and that's the perfect age of your child to start making those moves.mg33
- My 16 month old son grabs my phone and brings it to me even tho I never ask him. We're following the same regiment. No Tv either. Once I showed him a roostersBeeswax
- video on youtube. He got hypnotized, completely lost himself in there so I took him away from the screen. I cant imagine long term exposure.Beeswax
- Great stuff. I’ve noticed my students now can’t concentrate for more than 5 minutesChimp
- I feel like we totally screwed our kid.. he was born 3 months after the iPad was released in 2010.. he never had a chanceautoflavour
- I do the same with my daughter. I had heard a semi-recent study said there was no harm in kids using screens. What studies have you seen?Gucci
- It's now a point of pride for her that when she's at daddy's house she uses her imagination.Gucci
- way to set your kid back! one not born and bred to tech is like keeping your kid out of school until 10. sure better rounded but a minority sociallydeathboy
- Mono, when will you be moving to a horse and cart as you family transport . And, are you having trouble finding a space beside the river to keep your mangle andMorning_star
- ...washboard. Also, all this new fangled medicine is dangerous. A good bread poultice will cure most ailments.Morning_star
- fuck off deathboy, and go play with the rest of the forever-alones where you belongmonospaced
- When you learn to write above the 3rd grade level, then you can talk about how to raise a smart kid. Fucking idiot.monospaced
- oh mono your kid will be so willy willy proud of his daddy for being internet aggressive. wonder if you will teach him that device freedeathboy
- 2nd grade level.monospaced
- see this why you need him to have devices so you can show him the witty progression of edge less insults. if not to learn from but hopefully to surpassdeathboy
- maybe you guys in the future can team up too. a father and "non-gender species" thing. bonding and all that. dont hide your habitdeathboy
- kindly fuck off and never speak to me about my family again, you talentless weirdomonospaced
- Doing the same with ours that is 2-1/2 now. We do have TV on more than we should but dont let her any device/screen time like so many around us with similarDarkCover
- age and think it shows. She absolutely loves books and always going to books over toys. On top of that, taking and thought process well beyond her peersDarkCover
- Same, Dark. We do use TV but never more than an 45 min at a time. It’s necessary! My son LOVES books too, and I know this is related. :)monospaced
- Good job!monospaced
- e-wo5
Yes, I'm addicted. To the point where I consider if I should take a 60% paycut and join the forestry service or something.
By far my least favorite side effect is having less distinct memories from the last 10 years. It's hard to form worthwhile memories if many of your experiences are lived vicariously through a screen.
- I'm also thinking of changing job for something not involving computers. i dont know. I'm thinking a lot lately.Bennn
- Bennn2
Just an example but since a year or two, my Youtube viewing time has exploded... lately I was watching it like 2-3 hours every evening ... I subscribed to many channels and I didnt want to miss any videos, but there's new content everyday, it never stop!
But now I'm slowing down, I try to watch less and I tell myself that this is not that important, i can miss videos ffs and just watch some from time to time.
i also need to unsubscribe to some channels to get less content everyday.
- none of it is important, at allmonospaced
- exactlyBennn
- How do you have 2-3 hours a day to watch youtube?! You could start a side business with that kind of spare time.zarkonite
- i know, I have lots of spare time but lack motivation and ideas to do something :(Bennn
- I'm working on itBennn
- I find the hardest part is starting something so I lie to myself by saying I'll just do 5 minutes, or break it down into a really really small task and oftenzarkonite
- next thing I know it's been 2hrs and I gotta get some sleep.zarkonite
- exactlyBennn
- imbecile0
- holy shit, that's a lot of time!monospaced
- I thought I was bad at 2.25 a day.monospaced
- some of it is work, but enough enough to feel good about itimbecile
- but *not enoughimbecile
- totally understand, of course ... I didn't mean to come off criticalmonospaced
- i'm critical of it myself, obviously i spend too much time staring at apps *checks snapchatimbecile
- Now that we have a child, making sure we aren't on screens around them is a huge part of our plan.monospaced
- makes sense, you have other real life distractions. i have hobbies and my own selfishness to contend withimbecile
- my selfishness for tech is a strong contender still, to my wife's dismaymonospaced
- Snapchat! WTF even is it? I thought it was for sending picture messages. Who you messaging 14hrs a week?Hayzilla
- Bennn2
I started to use instagram more in the first half of the year but i suddenly stop lately and now I just post my pics when I have pics to post, I was anxious to post at least once a day to keep up the followers, but now fuck it, dont care anymore.
And i almost completely stopped liking ans scrolling the feed. I just watch some stories everyday and thats it. Instagram is toxic and lead to nothing in the end for me.
- imbecile3
this thread IS being broadcast to a crowd of 40+ whom have resided at this forum for the last two decades, so there's that fact to to contend with.
- stoplying2
More of a device addiction than a technology addiction.
I've been keeping my phone in airplane mode the last two weeks while on a vacation to Japan/Taiwan. It's kind of nice to know that there's no reason to check my phone and I have stopped incessantly checking it. Just been using it for photos and when we get back to our room at the end of the day.
- mg331
I logged out of my Twitter politics account on Friday and only logged back in today to keep on top of Mueller's testimony. I also took the politics subreddit out of my favorites, which has made it easier to go to Reddit and not immediately go there.
But it's as much willpower as it is making it harder to find.
- yeah Twitter is like a never-ending scroll fest. new content every few seconds depending on how many persons you follow. its kinda crazy.Bennn
- mg330
I don't know if it's so much an addiction as it is a byproduct of availability as far as news and information. It could very well be an addiction to information in my case that just so happens to use technology as the delivery mechanism.
I mean, I use technology all the time, but the majority of those uses (music making, design work) don't reinforce or fuel an addiction. An addiction would feel like more of an irrational or harmful and consistent usage of technology for mindless things (social media, YouTube, electronic conversations, etc.) I think plenty of us are way to addicted on that level.
- Do you miss being in front of a screen when you're doing something else? Are thinking "cant wait to get home and scroll the web"?Bennn
- No. To be accurate, I can't wait to get home and surf the world wide web.
https://media.tenor.…mg33 - heheBennn
- mg331
RE: Changing jobs away from technology... I daydream about that plenty but stop as soon as I realize the money isn't there to fulfill a lifestyle and family needs that we're accustomed to in a two-income household. It would be next to impossible to take a drastic pay cut and continue to live happily and plan for our lives financially decades down the road. That said, I still like what I do that involves technology and I'm content to keep following that path.
But if I were going to do something different... I used to daydream about running a "bed and dinner" (as opposed to a bed and breakfast) in the mountains in Colorado, on some property with water, trees, activities people can do, and a rotating cast of chefs each month coming in to cook for guests in a small setting. Little of that would involve technology and I expect I'd work 10x harder than I do now for likely 20x the enjoyment.
Woodworking and building furniture would be fun, but as a business I don't know how that would be sustainable on a small scale and at a level that earned enough $.
If I'm completely daydreaming here... a recent dream has been to somehow start writing screenplays and painting large paintings and collages of geometric grids - just cold, sterile, bleak looking post-modern-ish grids that would look good in building lobbies and art collections. LOL, I don't do either of those things at all now, so I like the idea of pursuing something that would involve a lot of learning.
My only realistic pursuit outside of my job is to try and do something with the instrumental and ambient music I've been making. I'd love to find a way towards making music for films, though that wouldn't be an escape from technology, but would be a much more personally fulfilling endeavor.
- Bennn0
yes, I've been reading some articles on the topic and we're just starting to understand the consequences of the omni-present technology and the web on our society.
I think it slowly brings us to an Idiocraty... pretty sure an influencer will be President of the US one day. ... well thats another topic maybe
- why not? tv stars have been. that's how popular votes workimbecile
- Bennn0
''Tech addiction is real. We psychologists need to take it seriously.''
- Bennn0
"Internet at forefront of technology addiction"
