Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/12/principal-offers-students-100.html
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Stupid kids in D.C., using “social media” at 3 a.m. instead of sleeping… I can’t put my finger on it, but this seems to remind me of someone…
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This anti-screentime stance is bullshit. People overlook the enormous benefit of screen time: filling in those holes in the daily schedule, those periods of inactivity where we would usually dissociate from reality. They say daydreaming is important, but that adds up to a lot when we consider transit times, pooping, waiting in line…
Using a phone a lot is not wrong, so long as a person isn’t driving or something.
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Many people can’t go five minutes without checking their phones. It’s an addiction. The vast majority of what they’re doing (refreshing Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram) is ultimately unfulfilling, even though it scratches a short-term itch.
I fully support experiments in training kids how to occupy their minds without the use of their phones. I don’t know how effective this particular program will be, but it’s a worthy endeavor.
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This challenge is nothing more than just that. A challenge. Offer me enough money to be worth my time to not get on the internet for a period of time and i will happily do so. And once that timeframe is done i will go right back to it.
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This is just the Twenty-First Century version of the former practice of educators of paying students not to look at books.
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Oh, absolutely. Like I alluded to, I don’t think this is a very good tactic to get kids to learn to be without their phones. But it means people are thinking about it, and hopefully more tools will emerge – time monitoring apps, lock-boxes by the front door – as well as, more importantly, a societal push to use them.
I understand phone addiction, even in its minor form. My wife and I both find ourselves absentmindedly pulling out our phones to scroll through social media when we’re playing with our kids. We both get defensive when the other one points it out, but only because we know it’s true. And I see other parents do this all the time, as well as people pulling out a phone to scroll while currently engaged in a conversation with real-live people. We aren’t the worst – we don’t have our phones out at the table, or in bed – but I see this kind of addictive behavior everywhere, and I know my wife’s students can’t live without their phones.
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My first thought as an adult was “100 bucks? Fuck that.”
My second thought (from a kid’s perspective) went something like “I could use that money to buy an iPad!” Unless I already had an iPad, in which case “100 bucks? Fuck that.”
And my third thought was “my 13 year old self would totally get busted forging signatures.”
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Suggesting people take anything easy, be it social media, memes, books, comics, movies, TV, video games, music, junk food, porn, jerking off, drinking, drugs, witchcraft, body building or politics generally doesn’t work as anyone indulging in a harmful amount of something usually don’t realize it. Any one of the above can be seriously harmful if that’s all you do. Put it all together in balance and you’ve got a fairly groovy Monday night round my place.
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I miss boredom!
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Are you kidding? Sometimes, when I’m waiting in line or riding the bus, I’ll feel the reassuring weight of my phone in my breast pocket. But instead of pulling it out, I’ll just sit there and savor the boredom. Boredom is the most honest form of nostalgia.
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Reminds me of the moral panic in the 50s and 60s over teenagers using the telephone too much.
also… did you hear about Hugo and Kim!!!
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Day dreaming is underrated. While i do admit to being on my phone a ton, i also enjoy having a good moment to left my thoughts drift. Might think of an interesting story, concept, or whatever and let my mind go down that path for a while.
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You’re obviously an adult that has an idea of healthy boundaries, even as you cross them. I think that your example is the greatest mechanism to influence the young 'uns. One that may not be heeded in the throes of kidness, but the kind that they’ll use as they mature.
I try not to think of limits as stopping a bad thing (screen time), but making room for a good thing (reflection / balance / alternate experience).
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