[jonstokes]

I think it's amazing that on a site that's supposedly filled with tech geeks, so few commenters seem to know the difference between spending time alone in your room in front a non-networked PC learning to code, and being glued to a networked smartphone no matter where you are, taking in a feed and waiting for the dopamine hit from a "like" or a share.

Anyway, the public-spirited side of me sees responses like the ones here and is depressed, but my secret inner libertarian sees them and thinks: "Score! My three kids will have attention spans and social skills, and will out-compete the smartphone-addicted children of these fools in every arena of adult life. So by all means, cripple your kids by handing them one of these pocket slot machines. Mwuahahaha"

[non-entity]

> My three kids will have attention spans and social skills, and will out-compete the smartphone-addicted children of these fools in every arena of adult life.

until, you know, they decide to buy a smartphone as an adult, and over consume then

[bigtunacan]

They will still have had almost an 18 year learning advantage at that point.

[notacoward]

Yeah, cripple your kids by allowing them to participate in adolescent social life the same way their peers do, making it easier to make and maintain such ties later in life. What a horrible fate.