I love all of your thoughts. I was talking to a friend the other day about the inability for Gen Alpha kids to form paragraphs and sentences (I'm a substitute teacher) and how far behind many of them are in math and language skills. He then mentioned that Gen Z men seemed like meat puppets unable to approach women in the gym. Both genera…
I love all of your thoughts. I was talking to a friend the other day about the inability for Gen Alpha kids to form paragraphs and sentences (I'm a substitute teacher) and how far behind many of them are in math and language skills. He then mentioned that Gen Z men seemed like meat puppets unable to approach women in the gym. Both generations have in common the increased screen based childhood and I have long argued this affects neural development for sure. However, it also affects play. Gen Z is the first generation to be raised inside, either in daycare and then school with little to no recess (compared to us Gen Xers for sure). In addition, when home, they were watching TV or plugged into gaming systems, more so for Gen Alpha due to the iPad/Smartphone being there since birth. This reduces physical activity and PLAY with others. The bumping up against the other, climbing together, meeting in real space and the neurological growth associated with play. Playing as children, allowing imaginations to interact, feelings to be hurt, and feelings to grow is also part of learning to mate. If you didn't play together, how do you date later in life? How do you approach sex without the tumble of preschool. Adults have invaded the play spaces of children, either to remove them entirely or guide them with rules and regulations, to the point where children aren't given their time to be alone. So, online, where the adults aren't is where the children "play?"
Check out Jack Kruse on blue light. It emanates from computer and phone and tablet screens. Even LED bulbs put out more blue light than incandescent bulbs. He says it was scientifically chosen in order to control people.
For an iPhone, you can tweak the color spectrum such to remove blue light. The screen is red. It is hard to see some of the screen controls though.
Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size>Color Filters
Turn On. Slide Intensity all the way to the right. Slide Hue all the way to the right.
Done
Now create a shortcut.
Settings>Accessibility>Accessibility Shortcut (near bottom). Select Color Filters. Should see a checkmark by it. Or click on Color Filters to see a checkmark.
Now 3 clicks of the side button will switch between Color Filter on and off.
Alternatively
Settings>Display & Brightness>Night Shift. Turn on set schedule. Have it be More Warm when it is dark. The screen becomes warmer (more yellow than bright white.)
I use both.
Will disagree slightly with your Gen-X description. Sure, what you wrote is true… for some. And it was more common than today. But your criticisms of the younger generations applied to many of us too. I’m early Gen-X (only missed being a Boomer by a few years.). Almost all my friends had video game systems in middle school. MTV came into my cable system when I was in 8th grade. We’d watch it for hours. The VCR was just starting to enter households. It was expensive. So, we usually had to watch programs when they aired; not record and watch when convenient.
I’m shocked at how much my generation (those I grew up with) is addicted to social media. Branding was only becoming a thing in my high school years. Designer jeans, particular branded sneakers, etc. Now, that’s all they care about.
Will also add. Most of the families I see seem to be matriarchal. It is not anywhere near equal. The wife dominates the household. And she’s incompetent. Focused only on what provides her with “status”.
Good advice on the blue light, and I'm sure it affects the neural development of babies 0-3 as well as teens (the two major phases of brain growth). So much more needs to be thought about.
As for play, I agree that Gen X had computer games and MTV, but at least in the suburbs, kids played all the time. More importantly, we played when we were young, the early stages being when we negotiate boundaries as well as build our physical/neural networks. Atari came out in 1977, when the youngest of us was born. And most homes didn't have it. Regardless, in my life up to high school, one or two houses had a game system, they were also the ones with the VCR and MTV. The rest of us watched sitcoms right after school and they played outside on our bikes and in the backyards until dinner. Winter was a bit different. Contrast to my experience as a young mother at the park with my boys in the height of the summer, 2002. Same suburb. Empty streets. Not a child to be seen. All either in daycare, summer camp, or inside watching their screens. Even without the iPhone, it was happening with the gaming systems and TVs for sure.
The commodification of hobbies and the arts as double income families increasingly want childcare is also destroying opportunities for kids. I grew up in community theatre and church musicals, choirs, volunteer orchestras. Eventually went to music college and had a working band and a part time job in a recording studio. Now i have musical kids, and less than 10% of the opportunities to learn and acquire skill by playing with others. Lessons are always paid for, but every little play or choir or orchestra is now billable and usually at a hugely inflated rate. We have one free community drama group, but every other opportunity is 800-1000$ each. Sports has been destroyed, too. By the time a kid is 10, they are either in the tens of thousands travelling team, or they are done. Soccer, gymnastics, baseball, hockey... none of it is rec league, even for kids.
>So, online, where the adults aren't is where the children "play?"
Interesting question because I've seen a marked increase in ageism in certain online spheres where under 18s seem to believe the spaces are meant for them in the first place (they aren't). That's a problem in and of itself, that there really aren't "kids" spaces to play. I was reading an article about how youth are opting in to this surveillance culture that imposes toxic online behaviour onto real life... (as DF herself said, "surveillance is love") there seems to be a lot of problems that we're going to have to deal with that are either invisible because we're in the middle of it, or that is intentionally being ignored. I do not envy the parents and teachers of today.
I love all of your thoughts. I was talking to a friend the other day about the inability for Gen Alpha kids to form paragraphs and sentences (I'm a substitute teacher) and how far behind many of them are in math and language skills. He then mentioned that Gen Z men seemed like meat puppets unable to approach women in the gym. Both generations have in common the increased screen based childhood and I have long argued this affects neural development for sure. However, it also affects play. Gen Z is the first generation to be raised inside, either in daycare and then school with little to no recess (compared to us Gen Xers for sure). In addition, when home, they were watching TV or plugged into gaming systems, more so for Gen Alpha due to the iPad/Smartphone being there since birth. This reduces physical activity and PLAY with others. The bumping up against the other, climbing together, meeting in real space and the neurological growth associated with play. Playing as children, allowing imaginations to interact, feelings to be hurt, and feelings to grow is also part of learning to mate. If you didn't play together, how do you date later in life? How do you approach sex without the tumble of preschool. Adults have invaded the play spaces of children, either to remove them entirely or guide them with rules and regulations, to the point where children aren't given their time to be alone. So, online, where the adults aren't is where the children "play?"
Check out Jack Kruse on blue light. It emanates from computer and phone and tablet screens. Even LED bulbs put out more blue light than incandescent bulbs. He says it was scientifically chosen in order to control people.
For an iPhone, you can tweak the color spectrum such to remove blue light. The screen is red. It is hard to see some of the screen controls though.
Settings>Accessibility>Display & Text Size>Color Filters
Turn On. Slide Intensity all the way to the right. Slide Hue all the way to the right.
Done
Now create a shortcut.
Settings>Accessibility>Accessibility Shortcut (near bottom). Select Color Filters. Should see a checkmark by it. Or click on Color Filters to see a checkmark.
Now 3 clicks of the side button will switch between Color Filter on and off.
Alternatively
Settings>Display & Brightness>Night Shift. Turn on set schedule. Have it be More Warm when it is dark. The screen becomes warmer (more yellow than bright white.)
I use both.
Will disagree slightly with your Gen-X description. Sure, what you wrote is true… for some. And it was more common than today. But your criticisms of the younger generations applied to many of us too. I’m early Gen-X (only missed being a Boomer by a few years.). Almost all my friends had video game systems in middle school. MTV came into my cable system when I was in 8th grade. We’d watch it for hours. The VCR was just starting to enter households. It was expensive. So, we usually had to watch programs when they aired; not record and watch when convenient.
I’m shocked at how much my generation (those I grew up with) is addicted to social media. Branding was only becoming a thing in my high school years. Designer jeans, particular branded sneakers, etc. Now, that’s all they care about.
Will also add. Most of the families I see seem to be matriarchal. It is not anywhere near equal. The wife dominates the household. And she’s incompetent. Focused only on what provides her with “status”.
Good advice on the blue light, and I'm sure it affects the neural development of babies 0-3 as well as teens (the two major phases of brain growth). So much more needs to be thought about.
As for play, I agree that Gen X had computer games and MTV, but at least in the suburbs, kids played all the time. More importantly, we played when we were young, the early stages being when we negotiate boundaries as well as build our physical/neural networks. Atari came out in 1977, when the youngest of us was born. And most homes didn't have it. Regardless, in my life up to high school, one or two houses had a game system, they were also the ones with the VCR and MTV. The rest of us watched sitcoms right after school and they played outside on our bikes and in the backyards until dinner. Winter was a bit different. Contrast to my experience as a young mother at the park with my boys in the height of the summer, 2002. Same suburb. Empty streets. Not a child to be seen. All either in daycare, summer camp, or inside watching their screens. Even without the iPhone, it was happening with the gaming systems and TVs for sure.
The commodification of hobbies and the arts as double income families increasingly want childcare is also destroying opportunities for kids. I grew up in community theatre and church musicals, choirs, volunteer orchestras. Eventually went to music college and had a working band and a part time job in a recording studio. Now i have musical kids, and less than 10% of the opportunities to learn and acquire skill by playing with others. Lessons are always paid for, but every little play or choir or orchestra is now billable and usually at a hugely inflated rate. We have one free community drama group, but every other opportunity is 800-1000$ each. Sports has been destroyed, too. By the time a kid is 10, they are either in the tens of thousands travelling team, or they are done. Soccer, gymnastics, baseball, hockey... none of it is rec league, even for kids.
>So, online, where the adults aren't is where the children "play?"
Interesting question because I've seen a marked increase in ageism in certain online spheres where under 18s seem to believe the spaces are meant for them in the first place (they aren't). That's a problem in and of itself, that there really aren't "kids" spaces to play. I was reading an article about how youth are opting in to this surveillance culture that imposes toxic online behaviour onto real life... (as DF herself said, "surveillance is love") there seems to be a lot of problems that we're going to have to deal with that are either invisible because we're in the middle of it, or that is intentionally being ignored. I do not envy the parents and teachers of today.