[ctrw]

I'm old enough to have gone through this about the internet and literate enough to have read about every other time this happened back to the invention of writing which was meant to turn us all into imbeciles according to Socrates.

Leave the kids alone. They will figure it out.

[namaria]

A lot of the "this has happened since the dawn of time" falls apart when you remember we have created in the past 30 years technologies that have never existed and are changing the nature of civilization.

[ctrw]

When you have cried wolf dozens of times 'this time it's different' isn't.

[29athrowaway]

Wrong.

The Internet today is not the same as the one you grew up in.

If what you seek is virtue, you will find virtue. If what you seek is vice, you will find vice.

If what you wanted is learning you could find everything you wanted to learn. But if you have problems the Internet can make them much worse.

And the Internet of today is much less forgiving. There is no real anonimity now.

[ctrw]

If Socrates was wrong about reading you're wrong about whatever the kids are doing today.

[082349872349872]

> As middle-aged folk identify the problems with the social networks they grew up with, youngsters may already be moving on.

One of my proudest parenting moments was discovering that a child had independently realised that their online presences ought to be multiple and not trivially correlated.

[31337Logic]

A better, prouder moment, for all involved, would be not that the child arrived at this marvelous conclusion "independently", for that outcome (by your admission) is quite rare. Else, it would not be remarkable enough for you to comment.

Instead, we want to arm our children with the tools so that they arrive at that same conclusion repeatedly and predictably. Better yet, we would all do better if we simply eliminate such harmful algorithms and creepy practices entirely.