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More than one-third of 15-year-old children in the UK could be classified as 'extreme internet users', or those who are online for more than six hours daily outside of school.
A report from UK think-tank Education Policy Institute (EPI) states that children in the UK have a higher rate of extreme usage (37.8 percent of all UK 15 year olds) than other countries. Only Chile reported more.
The think-tank examined the relation between social media use (including online time) and mental illness:
While twelve percent of children who spend no time on social networking websites on a normal school day have symptoms of mental ill health, that figure rises to 27 percent for those who are on the sites for three or more hours a day.
Here's a hint: if one third of your kids think a certain way, it's a personality trait not a mental illness.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 06 2017, @03:02AM (5 children)
To me anything the UK does related to internet and tech is something to consider as a move by the GCHQ to continuously expand surveillance. But in this case I'm going to have to say I'd be more surprised if there was study showing that it didn't mess with your brain. It's not because they sit at a computer and stare at it. It's the content of what they look at. There are very few avenues for healthy exchange of ideas these days and especially now. Combined with the fact that most social media sites are designed and benefit greatly from you obsessively clicking and checking. That can easily wrack your nerves especially given the sensationalist fuckery.
I can feel it happening myself and I'm not someone with a still-developing brain. If I didn't place strict boundaries and philosophies of research on how I use this shit I can easily see myself becoming some neurotic asshole that can't read beyond headline length. Because that's the level of saturation we're at.
Also, everything you do is forever on the internet. Children don't deserve that. And I'm sure I don't need to explain the stresses that can be placed on someone who posts something in a childishly ignorant manner and gets utterly fucked for it. In fact a specific recent example comes to mind but I'm not even going to name it because it's just fucking impossible to name one of these places now without inciting an equal but opposite reaction for the sake of itself. But you know what I'm talking about.
I think all of this will eventually be resolved when we develop VR that works to simulate a social situation in such a way that you get the genuine social stimuli required. Which again very important for developing brains. And it is inevitable. We aren't going back from the phat data pipes. We're going all the way down into it more and more every day. As the internet and associated peripherals get better and software becomes mildly less suck, we will replace social interaction. Just not caught up yet.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 06 2017, @04:01AM (4 children)
Counteracted by asking what you want to accomplish and the scope of it. And checking, use a bot so that the computer tells you when there is something worthwhile to check, instead of constant polling.
Children ought to get educated on how the computer networks behaves from a information flow standpoint. Simple things like store and forward, not-your-computer, network effect, cluster impact, written doesn't equal truth, check sources if it matters, do you control the delete button etc. As a next step they ought to learn how to evaluate organizations. And that it's a good idea to distrust government, business and all organizations as a default position. Who? Why? What? Incentive? Network? etc.
It's a new thing, but parents not giving this lesson or schools. Do their kids or pupils a disservice.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 06 2017, @04:32AM (3 children)
I want to gain knowledge about what, why and how without the material being tainted. This is not something accomplished by writing a bot that pulls from an ML API. I take the burden happily because it's my responsibility and choice to. But that doesn't mean I like it.
But yes my solution is much the same (parents could try being parents). I also remember that parents are among those posting photos of their kid assuming a political position/affiliation before they can talk right. Don't expect them to teach fundamentals about privacy, digital rights and sourcing. They don't understand it themselves. Also helicopter parents probably make the situation worse.
As for schools, I'm not even sure if they can be trusted to not put agendas into their head when they're not in the middle of the most bizarre special needs program in history [theatlantic.com].
P.S. Seriously admire your optimism here with regards to the delete button. But let's be honest, FB and Twitter are either saving it somewhere or in the case of FB make it near impossible to figure out how to delete. I figure we'll see them hidden more in the future if anything. Less "who controls the delete button" and more "who controls your data".
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 06 2017, @05:26AM (2 children)
I'll expect most parents to be shit, just like Sturgeons law stipulates. But those that has brains could at least educate themselves and their children. It's less about knowledge and more about understanding. So an IQ test right there, unfortunately for many people. The rest will behave like idiots and be served the consequences.
Evaluate schools and choose wisely?
As you point out, there is no delete button. But that is the point. ASKING the question and the thinking process doing that gives insight about what to do and especially about what to not do. Having multiple identities should be required knowledge for any online smart like there's street smart.
The large and sore point is that most likely the "other kids" have smartphones with camera and fa(r)cebook. So their peers will gossip all kinds of private matters electronically. But that is an excellent opportunity to learn operation security. Ie what to share or not share with IRL friends. Seed them with false leads. Make use of the dramabook using proxies to put some identifier distance into it, and only use it where there's something to gain like with ignorant peers planning something together like a class party etc. Leave all other (private) matters out.
A common thread is likely that smart and (life smarts) educated people will have an advantage. Unfortunately people don't choose parents....
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Thursday July 06 2017, @06:39AM (1 child)
This is all true enough but there is a degree of reliance on some majority of reasonable parents and if it's a Sturgeon's law thing then that is definitely not the case. I don't know how likely that is. But I hope it's not 90%.
I really want to agree with the perspective about street smarts and alike basic knowledge because I slept in gutters, cars and was around drugs and dealers for a good part of my childhood. I would say it made me smarter than a sheltered life did probably.
I don't know, I feel like when I say that I'm basically saying it's cool if we have chimney sweeps running around that have to learn the hard way how not to get stuck in a fireplace even if happens to be their lil' tiny stupid souls that get hurt more rather than anything physical :/
Maybe parents have a better capacity in the UK? idunno. Kind of have to compare everything from an american viewpoint.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 06 2017, @07:23AM
Most parents are reasonable when it comes to standard child caring. It's when they meet a non-intuitive online world that their thinking process will be seriously challenged and they must learn to navigate something more complex than a truthful (oh well) newspaper and town gossip. So 90% of parents could handle a upbringing without internet. With internet it drops more according to Sturgeons law.
I think this issue is not so much about country as about able and will do due diligence on critical thinking. This skill seems even more important now that media lies and various organizations move in to take their exploitation of others.