BabaYaga

So you don't think the conversation is around the damages of nerfing the world for our kids and using old playgrounds as an example?

Time for zombies and rodents of unusual size?

You really think that's the message?

I think the general sentiment that nerfing the world for our kids is doing them a disservice.

That's not at all what he's saying. How many school ago children have a grasp or international, macro implications at a global scale? Better yet, how many should? He's talking about the growth and development of children being significantly impacted by a virtual reality that is having a detrimental impact to adolescents across the globe. How would you rate screen time on devices between geo-commentary and dopamine filled social media? My guess is the latter would be the overwhelming amount of time vs. the former. Nor are these mutually exclusive. You want to have a conversation about geo-politics or the climate with your children, my guess is JH would suggest sitting around the dinner table as a family and do just that.

Obligatory

It's so infuriatingly painful to become even semi-proficient. I'm still so bad compared to many of my peers. Worse still, it's such a perishable skill so you have to stay on top of it. My damn thumb still hurts because I forgot my mag loader for the P365 and the springs in those little shit mags are still way too tight. Why I tell everyone that asks about home defense to get a little 9mm carbine like the Ruger PC-9. Easy to operate. Longer sight radius. Can hold with two hands and anchor to your shoulder. Minimal recoil. Not expensive. Fun to shoot.

I know more than a few people that are switching back to the old flip phone. Calls. Texts. That's basically it. They seem to love it. Problem with doing this with kids is the amount of shit their peers will rain down on them with their new smart phones. We've tried to mitigate this with both kids via sports. Get the kids outside. Put them in situations where they are being pushed. Earn "real" accolades. Not clicks and likes. Create your own gravity, and do not get sucked into that of others. We have land, so spending time out there helps, albeit I recognize it's a gift not all have. Oldest boy likes to game, so we now go to the shooting range every weekend and rent "those guns" he plays with. It's expensive, but he loves it. This weekend we compared 1911's to the "John Wick" guns he sees in the movies with comp slides and reticles. He likes the 1911. Frisco Gun range has an SBR. "Ok kid, let me see what you got". Loading the mags is a PITA. Not like the games huh? Oh, and they're loud AS SHIT. Not easy to hold steady are they? Spent casing hit you in the face? He still loves it, but the perspective is there as well. Now all he wants to do is practice, so it's a start.

Haidt has been tracking this for some time now. His previous book "fragility of the American mind" addressed this as well. Story is behind a paywall, but I've followed him on enough podcasts to know what he's talking about - specifically regarding cell phones. He teaches as at NYU. He asked his class why so many are on social media. The primary answer all parent hear is that everyone else is. His next question was if everyone else was off, ie., these sites were shut down, would you support that. Almost all said yes. The kids see the problems, they are just sucked into the gravity of all their peers being on them as well. His new book has four steps he's pushing for to try and get these kids off these damn sites. They escape me at the moment, but the point was it wasn't covid that sent so many into a tailspin. The rates were already skyrocketing well before covid.

Surly motto?

There is. For many, the best outlet for those with children and busy lives are athletics. Teach them early on that all their pussy friends need a swift kick in the dick, and that utilizing your physical dominance over them both makes you feel better and their cries of pain will dramatically help them get to sleep at night. Teach them early what is best.

And then get RIF'd in mass at the whim of the company.

I'd ask @Not a cat, as the avatar seems relevant.....;)

Difference is how easily they can be fired and replaced.

Please thank them for their service for the rest of us.

Old man answer to all rain questions is fully engaged: “we need it”

Dude…..

Only one US President has lost a son to war. T. Roosevelt

They didn't inject politics into their paper titled 'Diverging trends in internalizing symptoms among US adolescents by political beliefs'. Gotcha.

Good for them. "Non-political" researchers injecting politics as the reason for spikes in depression and completely rejecting social media as the cause despite the time frame used directly overlaps with the advent of social media. lol.

Bullshit (the hypothesis, not the post). These time periods directly correlate to the advent and growth of social media.

Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times

Does 8 Seconds count? Damn fine movie about Tuff Hedeman & Lane Frost.

Beastmaster had those perfect Tanya Roberts te-tes. Quite the impact to a young and impressionable degenerate.