[ups101]

Around age 7 my daughter showed ocd like behavior (incessant scratching her arms) when she realized loosing connection during chrome casting meant the device kept playing. We had to unplug the chromecast device and inspect it, lying there dead and silent on the table, to settle her down. Same thing when our pc was updating, saying “please do turn off computer” and then _proceeding to reboot on its own_ at end of update. She wouldn’t enter the living room if google home was plugged in, and we would have to convince her it was OK google was listening (!…). as a toddler she would shake from fear if curtains were gently blowing - we figured she thought someone was standing there and tried to inspect it together to no avail. only recently we understood she in fact feared the house would blow away. Equal parts worried and proud of my little tin foil hat in the making :-).

[soulofmischief]

To be fair, many people think it's not OK for Google to be listening, and you should be careful not to accustom your daughter to tech surveillance.

[borski]

Sure, but if she has generalized anxiety, adding more to the plate in the form of “oh, also Google wants to throw you in prison eventually” is just not worth it right now :)

I’m exaggerating for effect, because kids do

[soulofmischief]

I'm not withholding these details from my children.

[pantalaimon]

> She wouldn’t enter the living room if google home was plugged in, and we would have to convince her it was OK google was listening

granted, that one doesn't seem so unreasonable

[fxtentacle]

Especially because it is documented that at least animals can "feel" (for lack of a better word) electromagnetic waves, including those created accidentally by cheap wifi/bluetooth devices.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11011-017-0016-2 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15368378.2014.90...

[daniel-cussen]

I consider these highly desirable behaviors in the unique future event of dystopia.

In general, paranoia is a highly effective deterrent to doing an undesirable behavior, because the paranoid really don't cheat. Whereas if you have to do it because it's your job, or the law? Eh.