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Ken Starks of the Reglue Project has written the details on how they guide participating youth away from junk sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and similar sites and towards useful, learning-oriented sites. He talks about which educational sites have shown to be most popular and singles out two exceptionally good ones.
Those who have followed Reglue.org over the years know that we place a strong emphasis on STEM topics and education. "STEM" is the given acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Linux is superbly well-tooled for these purposes and every computer we place with a financially disadvantaged student is Linux-powered. Now, that might sound like a steroid-fueled buzzkill to most, but in researching the online STEM subject matter, we found that we could actually make it fun. Yeah. Science....go figure.
The amount of STEM-related online content is massive and there is no shortage of content that is developed for the age group Reglue targets. The challenge was to find the content that captured and held their interest. Kids, right?
Therein lay the challenge.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Monday May 20 2019, @01:30PM (3 children)
Actual communication may be a byproduct of these sites, but it very much is part of them. There are no ads in Facebook Messenger communications or Twitter direct messages (the ads will be all around the conversation, but not in the middle). People don't engage to be influenced, they engaged to see the baby pictures from their cousin that lives four hundred miles away.
I'm an FSF member, but when we label proprietary products as first and foremost influence and advertising sites we just alienate people. That's like calling an Xbox a DRM box. That's absolutely an essential part of it, but people don't go to Target to buy an Xbox because they want DRM.
Further, I have a Mastodon (fully open source) social network instance, and it's 90% as addictive as the proprietary services. A lot of the appeal of these services is innate to human nature. In real life, if I want to discuss the Portuguese soccer team, or nanobot technology, or treatments for foot fungus I might not have anyone within ten miles that's interested in the topic at all, let alone interested in the topic at the same time of day and available to talk. With social networks, even open onces, I can almost certainly engage someone somewhere. That's incredibly alluring.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Monday May 20 2019, @07:58PM
I see your point -- your ideas involving nanobot technology to treat Portuguese soccer players' foot fungus are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your social media instance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 20 2019, @08:53PM (1 child)
"I'm an FSF member, but when we label proprietary products as first and foremost influence and advertising sites we just alienate people. That's like calling an Xbox a DRM box. That's absolutely an essential part of it, but people don't go to Target to buy an Xbox because they want DRM."
i have limited sympathy for "people" who willingly sell their children's future out for perceived convenience and status.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday May 22 2019, @05:30PM
If I restrict the devices and gadgets my kids can use because of software freedom, I guarantee this will be the result: when they reach adulthood and move away, they'll get all the devices they've always wanted and pay even less attention to my views on these topics than they do already. I see the choice of a gaming console or iPhone as a choice between freedom and slavery. They don't, and all the pontificating I do on the topic just closes their minds further against me.
If you have a way to convince my kids to freely forego these monstrosities, I'm all for it. Let's hear it. Otherwise, every restriction I apply today just makes them a bigger slave to DRM and anti-privacy products in the future. I've got to win them with rhetoric when they're adults. I may still lose even then. But I'm guaranteed to lose if I just make fiat decisions now.