10 Comments
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Sally J's avatar

A warning label won't work. It's not like people don't know what the problem is. There are lazy parents who allow and even encourage their kids to use devices rather than having to interact with their own children.

The same goes for teachers. It's easier for them to play a video in the classroom or as homework than creating materials and presenting the information themselves.

Tech caused the problem. Limits to tech solve it.

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for the kids's avatar

Thank you!

Two comments--

1- more than smartphones (you allude to this, as you note tablets at one point).

2- schools are pushing kids on line. Homework is often provided and returned online, they are asked to watch youtube videos, etc..... It's like putting a playground right next to a highway with no fence....

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Theresa Barzee's avatar

And, sadly, most of us are still operating as adolescents. So, electromagnetic devices, as also the social media or news feeds are our new consumprion diet. Scary. Isolating, divisive, enraging "capabilities" of these programs, for conditioning, training, using us, by algorithms are deliberate. By whom?! For what end!? Who benefits?!

Research required. Censorship exposed. Thank you!

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Crimson's avatar

Like smoking and gambling - one day in the future we will begin to consider if the best way forward for society (and women) is to raise our sons on Pornhub. Deep thinking and much soul searching will be required to grapple with this very difficult question. But it’s probably healthy. I hope we ignore it for another two decades so we have more time to think.

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Timothy Winey's avatar

You're only looking at half the problem. Blue light itself is highly addictive and extremely bad for you. https://jackkruse.com/emf-7-quantum-prometheus/

A recent study showed that a smartphone placed on the leg caused rouleaux (blood sludging). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11850513/

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Steersman's avatar

"Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts." 🙂

Though I'm reminded of a couplet or two from Canadian author and songwriter Leonard Cohen in his "The Future (It is murder.)":

LC: "Things are going to slide, slide in all directions, Won't be nothing, Nothing you can measure anymore, The blizzard, the blizzard of the world, Has crossed the threshold and it has overturned the order of the soul."

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David Atkinson's avatar

We all know it is addictive. The thing is that parents and schools need to band together to stop this. Charter schools and school choice are the best ways to make this happen for the masses.

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Save Democracy in America's avatar

Excellent piece and let’s not forget the number one reason why KOSA is politically dead on arrival: politicians’ desperate need for campaign cash, which keeps them saying anything that might alienate any of the many donors they need to mount a viable campaign.

In a sane world we’d ban smartphones and social media accounts for anyone under the age of 18. But such reasonable steps aren’t even part of the conversation. We’re lucky if we can even put warning labels on the agenda.

Candidates self censor to avoid alienating donors, so CEOs and heads of pressure groups don’t even have to pick up the phone and call lobbyists or members of Congress to thwart policies they dislike. Politicians already know what not to say.

This unseen and unacknowledged process drains the conversation of substance, asphyxiating our democracy in a manner so insidious that we the people don’t know how to fight back.

www.savedemocracyinamerica.org

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Lea's avatar

Thanks, it’s a start.

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David Gronek's avatar

It makes perfect sense so it won’t happen. Phone companies will lobby against this hard

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