Socrates bemoaned those young'ns who had the audacity to read their Homer, instead of memorizing it.
Eh, there is sufficient evidence to recommend children and teenagers having limited internet and social media access during their formative years at this point.
The tiktok algorithm of mindless doomscrolling funny little bits all short and digestible for a decaying attention span is just the most egregious example why restrictions should at least be considered.
You could say that about a lot of things, though. Video games and TV were commonly criticized this way. And it was a popular meme on Reddit that people would be so addicted to the site that they'd spend hours scrolling it.
Criticizing tik tok is just popular on sites like this because people here really don't like tik tok.
At any rate, parents can already try to restrict their children's access. But governments are gonna have a hard time doing so without hurting everyone as a whole (eg, see the attempts of some US states to require giving your ID to porn sites). Dunno if you remember being a kid, but I found my way around every restriction my parents set and I just disliked them for it.
They’re not wrong. Screen time is known to be harmful to children. And radio time may have been as well: hard to say, because kids aren’t listening to that kind of radio anymore. Two things can be true at once: pointing fingers at something that doesn’t apply anymore (when’s the last time you listened to a radio serial?) doesn’t invalidate the harms today.
Here’s what the actual experts say:
Talk radio still rots a lot of brains of all ages. It's insidious as a lot of folks still have that on in the background while driving to work or cooking etc, as compared to video and TV where you have to look directly at it and think about the message received with your whole brain.
Tiktok is digitial media, the attention span is the issue, not the media format.
I know a few people who admitted to me without me even probing them that they cannot handle watching or listening to a video over 1 minute long.
I am not for censoring Tiktok, however I will never used it since its horrible on privacy and has "back doors" to a powerful and malicious government. And I like videos that are long with good discussion or information.
No, tiktok is not digital media. It's a chinese cyber warfare weapon of mass destruction.
I think your right about that. It can be used to divide and subvert the west, but American big tech platforms do the same domestically and abroad.
To be fair as someone who over my life has transitioned from reading, to the internet, to videos, to short form content. it does have an effect on your attention span.
My advice. Do what you will, but never stop reading. Pick up some books.
TikTok conditions you to process media very quickly, id it doesn’t catch you within a few seconds you’re on the next one — that sort of thing then applies access the board and not only when browsing TT
Especially since children are still developing their brains this makes it even more problematic
TikTok, Social media, video games, rock and metal music, rap music, Dungeons and Dragons, Rock 'n' Roll, movies, phones, bikes, novels, older generations will always chose a scapegoat to focus on
Eventually it will be our turn
Just so you know, newspapers used to be pretty terrible in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were ripe with exaggerations and sometimes downright lies. The issue with TikTok and social media in general is how easy it is for absolute idiots to spread lies and harmful information to children (and naïve adults).
Here's an article on the topic from the New York Public Library.
If I sold newspapers, and I heard the radio spreading the news as well, you bet your ass I'm going to slander the shit out of it.
Which is why lots of people believe the storiea abour "War of the Worlds". Because of newspaper lies.
newspapers used to be pretty terrible in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Periodism is still terrible, not in the form of newspapers, but the internet, and it's why you usually end your searches with a 'reddit' at the end (hopefully lemmy will fully replace that soon)
Counterpoint: They used to be able to memorise the works of Homer.
and now they're able to memorize all the dances/emotes from a specific influencer/streamer. Almost the same, no?
Tiktok is not comparable to these other technologies, as TikTok uses an individualized algorithm to manipulate its users.
The fact that people have been concerned about this for generations doesn't automatically nullify the point. Attention and focus are skills which children must develop through boredom and long-form focus. TikTok brain is making that harder and harder for children to learn.
Worth pointing out here is that many of these criticisms all along have been totally on-target. The printing press brought on wars of religion and a multitude of poorly-thought out, often racist/hate-filled screeds along with advances in learning and science. Radio has brought us Father Coughlin and Limbaugh along with democratizing politics the way printed pamphlets couldn't. I'm sure I don't have to point out that both TV and the internet have their brain-rotting sides as well.
The fact that something won doesn't mean it's better. The fact that it's better doesn't mean it doesn't have serious flaws.
John Philip Sousa had only terrible things to say about... wait for it... player pianos.
Youtube shorts, TikTok, Facebook Story, Snapchat Reel: they are all the same. If you block TikTok, then you need to block others as well.
Legal wise, it's very hard to target a very specific type of media consumed. How can you really restrict that? IMHO, the only thing that might have better effects is educating people.
Same for drugs, alcool and tobacco. They are a all addictives at different levels, and they have different consequences as well that neeeds to be taken account.
They're all mediums. The content on them can be anything from mindless to informative.It's all up to who's curating it. Do you leave it up to the algos and advertisers or actually provide something to your kids? Up to a certain age letting them do whatever on the internet is idiotic like letting them run around a bookshop that carries porn and mein Kampf.
Meanwhile, parents are on all of these believing every conspiracy theory they see.
They were right about TV and TikTok.
I hope we can all agree that media, like drugs, exists on a spectrum of less harmful (books / weed) to very harmful (torture porn / bath salts). As time passes and more things are added to our lists we should no longer generalize and say everything in our once very small category is all good or all bad.
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.