Posted on 11/05/2018 7:11:12 AM PST by C19fan
The parents in Overland Park, Kan., were fed up. They wanted their children off screens, but they needed strength in numbers. First, because no one wants their kid to be the lone weird one without a phone. And second, because taking the phone away from a middle schooler is actually very, very tough.
“We start the meetings by saying, ‘This is hard, we’re in a new frontier, but who is going to help us?’” said Krista Boan, who is leading a Kansas City-based program called START, which stands for Stand Together And Rethink Technology. “We can’t call our moms about this one.”
For the last six months, at night in school libraries across Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., about 150 parents have been meeting to talk about one thing: how to get their children off screens.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Lower-income teenagers spend an average of eight hours and seven minutes a day using screens for entertainment, while higher income peers spend five hours and 42 minutes
Two studies that look at race have found that white children are exposed to screens significantly less than African-American and Hispanic children.
Who are “we”?
My sister tried. And then her school put all of the students’ work online and issued them all Google tablets.
WTH does “exposed to screens” mean? Is reading a textbook on a screen bad, but paper is morally superior? Its not the screen, it’s how it’s being used. I suspect this as being another front on the information war.
If they insist their little crumb crunchers have a “phone”, how about one that is just a phone? Minors have no business on the Internet.
True -- if you want them to grow up to be unemployable losers.
Even today, internet proficiency is necessary for all the good jobs.
I was just thinking about how much less stuff for kids to play with must be manufactured these days because who makes anything, just make a digital rendition of it and let’em play with that.
“True — if you want them to grow up to be unemployable losers.”
Nonsense. Any adult can get a good working knowledge of the Internet and its usefulness in a few hours. Kids look at porn and learn to eat Tide pods. Many textbooks are ion line only so that parents can’t see how their kids are being indoctrinated. Kids need books, not screens.
s reading a textbook on a screen bad, but paper is morally superior? Its not the screen, it’s how it’s being used.
Precisely. My MIL goes on about kids reading their phones and she has her nose in the newspaper.
if you want them to grow up to be unemployable losers.
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I didnt have a computer in the home until I was 22 (after college) and did not own a cell phone until I was 23. After that I worked as a web developer. I suffered no setbacks. The internet is the easiest tool on planet Earth to figure out.
What hurts kids is not understanding how to weld, change a tire, frame a house, etc. That actually takes knowledge, experience, patience, and thought.
Your statement is short sighted.
Exposing children to digital mediums is proven to hinder right brain development. Doing that, or encouraging anyone to do that, is stupid.
Computers are just a tool. Use it or abuse it. I used online exams to good effect to validate readiness for the Extra Class ham license. A Kindle copy of the SSCP 3rd edition serves as a handy way to prep for that exam. PDFs of computer science books help me rapidly solve software issues at work.
The problem isn't a matter of access to technology. The same hardware that helps me earn a good living will serve equally well for someone intent on wasting hours of time on amusement.
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