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Episode-2678 – The Ultimate Conversation on Children and Technology — 15 Comments

  1. Never fear simply learning about something…I have this problem, too. I don’t know if you can point to workable “anarchy demonstration projects,” but I can point to a lot of examples of how the teachings I am familiar with have been successfully used. And I know that most people who criticize us have no idea.

    Purpose of technology. Technology goes a long way back. Most basically, it is a way to help a being be lazy. It can be used as a “tool” or as a way to waste time. “Lazy” isn’t necessarily “bad.” But I don’t know that there is anything a machine can do that people couldn’t do themselves if they tried hard enough. So, what we’re looking for is a balance that helps us be efficient but doesn’t result in too huge of a crutch.

    Ted Kazinski. That’s right, smart doesn’t mean good. But the theme of using Technology to control humanity is pervasive in this culture. It is a very old and common experience. 1984, etc, etc.

    Technology and children: TV. That was my first big techno-attachment. And you are probably aware of all the propaganda uses TV has been put to. And movies before that. In addition, CRT TVs cause damaging x-ray exposure. But there is also a trance-attraction with glowing screens. As well, games and so forth can serve as a substitute for human interaction.

    In an educational situation, there is usually also the problem that the kid might not understand words in his materials or in what the teacher is saying, or what is coming through on the screen. And those misunderstood words can cause that glassy-eyed effect, too.

    This all has a lot to do with psychology. And that is a very misunderstood subject. But though we think of that subject as focusing on individual behavior, it reaches way up into social activities and even our relationships with animals and plants. It actually touches on all the possible variations of interactions between people and living things.

    Breakdown of healthy social structures leading to feelings that it would be better to disconnect from society: There is a persistent theory, backed by some documentation, that this is a plan that has been in place for at least 100 years and that the people privy to that plan have been working on it steadily and passing it on to their chosen heirs. Unfortunately, this theory does not always lead to lowering the confusion people have with why their world seems to be falling apart, or what to do about it. But I think it is important to understand that this process is being pushed by some very stubborn players, and is not just an inevitable result of human evolution. We can choose to go in a different direction, but it requires some work to back up that choice.

     

    • My open and often reposted position on does anarchy work, has it been tried, etc.

      Those that say anarchy can’t work or has never worked, here are some things for you to consider.

      First humans have been around about 300,000 years, the oldest modern civilization is less than 10,000 years old but even 3,000 years ago 75% of humans lived in stateless societies. So the state represents about 1% of all human existence on the planet.

      Next how about Siberia under Stalins terror. Many did not go to the salt mines, they were taken out on the trains and left to die and forgotten.

      50 years later hundreds of small scale stateless egalitarian thriving communities were found and offered “help”. Many of these places still exist far enough away to be left alone, they told the “help” to go fuck itself with a pine cone.

      Then there is this https://everything-voluntary.com/anarchy-never-been-tried

      Again most people don’t even know what anarchy is, they likely practice many forms of it DAILY in THEIR OWN LIFE.

      Serious question, if monopolies are bad why do people want to grant the state a monopoly in the most important areas of their own life?

      Finally tell you what, I welcome anyone to debate me on the subject in a live YouTube feed with an agreed upon independent moderator under the international rules of debate. Anyone. Any takers? Any?

      Note that was written long ago so I am not arguing at all with you Larry, it is just a position I have and see no reason to restate given the amount of work I do daily already.

  2. You sound like a man with a paper asshole. You think you understand the way kids learn, but you are disconnected from how life works in today’s world. Stick with gardening and ducks.

    • Actually today’s world is the entire point! Today’s world is empowered by technology and offers young people thousands more options today than even 25 years ago. And in spite of that your position is we should continue to use a system developed in 1850.

      Defend your position of an 1850s system of education in 2020.

      • You are right Jack, the system that is currently in place isn’t perfect. It does however accommodate the greatest number of people with our current system. It would be wonderful if we could live in a different system and not have to rely on our current standards of learning. The truth of the matter though is that both parents work way more often than not, not everyone has access to child care (family helping included), not everyone has a job that will let them work partial weeks, not everyone can move (there really are situations that prevent people from moving), and there are a lot of kids that don’t learn well from their parents when it comes to academics. There are kids that need structure or to learn from a voice that is different from the same one they hear every day to pick up their room. I am glad there is a portion of people that can and do get away from the system, but by and large it works. Not perfectly, but it is evolving slowly. You have said that covid is killing the dying and that the education system is dying, but it’s not dying. It will change and at a faster rate because of all this craziness, but it will fundamentally stay the same.

        • “You are right Jack, the system that is currently in place isn’t perfect. It does however accommodate the greatest number of people with our current system.”

          Dear God did you snap your neck with that circular logic? The system we have works best in the system we have. With that there is no point to this discussion.

        • “it will fundamentally stay the same.”

          While dozens of colleges board up windows and a huge percentage of parents now say they don’t plan to send kids back ever, and a much larger portion say they are deeply considering it.

          You are literally standing on the deck of a ship, water above your ankles and saying no one is about to start using the life boats.

          Every obstacle you presented is nothing but a mental wall. The fact that millions have already over come them shows how fake they are. Here you are like someone saying “no one can break the 4 minute mile” after dozens did it and at the competitive level it is about to become required to even be in the game. Good lord thank you so much for proving that when I claim education is indoctrination I am right.

        • Again you want to debate your position, the offer stands. Independent third party moderator, live stream, agreed upon times and defined topic.

      • I’ll clarify, the educational system works best with the current social/work system we have in place. Glad you didn’t get hung up on the semantics. There are plenty of colleges that are going under and they should. The statement was in regards to K-12 mostly. In regards to that it will not die it will simple morph into something new, but still be the same. As far as the number of parents that are considering vs the number that will actually home school I can’t wait for data on that. I genuinely look forward to it and seeing how that aspect of schooling and education grows. You say it’s a huge percentage, but I only ever recall you bringing one article and I would love to see the raw data for the survey that was conducted and get a greater view into the types of people that answered those questions, where they were from, etc. Numbers can be skewed with the right demographic being tested. The mental wall is more than that, it is a social wall. So until society is able to adapt to a new type of everything it will stay the same.

        • “I’ll clarify, the educational system works best with the current social/work system we have in place.”

          This attempt to rectify is just as bad if not worse. As our current social system is driven almost completely by the education system itself.

          Again please defend an 1850s education model in 2020 with something more than, it is what we have currently. Because that is all you are doing.

          The debate invitation stands, until that point unless you present something that is actually logical I won’t bother to respond to you further here.

  3. Wow, it’s so rare to find someone else (outside my circle of old friends) who remembers ‘Nibbler’ for the C64 & 128.

    That’s an instant “+3” to Jack’s old-school nerd cred 😉

  4. Like Jack’s “changing the password on the router” I use an app called Qustodio. It limits time on devices individually or even specific apps. It takes the argument out of telling them every day that their time is up. It gets a little ‘big brother’ but, I follow the idea that the more you demonstrate positive actions the fewer rules needed. With a device that has full access to the world, I couldn’t know what was happening at all. Now, I know my kids heed the conversations we have had and I can worry about them less.