[lrvick]

When all my peers were using AIM, and Yahoo instant messenger on Windows, I was on Linux communicating via online forums and IRC learning from mostly adults willing to mentor me as an anonymous username on the internet.

I was homeschooled and moved every 3-6 months growing up and in spite of all these "handicaps" I still learned to make several IRL friends within a week or two of every new city I ended up in. I would say hi, show them a magic trick, do some comedy bits I had been working on, or share the latest anime I was into. Whatever. Making friends is the skill to build in a kid, not technology conformity.

Stop worrying about making kids popular and making them conform in ways beyond basic manners and respect. The roads less traveled are more likely to kelp a kid develop atypical skillsets which will give them an advantage in the job market later.

[lelanthran]

> When all my peers were using AIM, and Yahoo instant messenger on Windows, I was on Linux communicating via online forums and IRC learning from mostly adults willing to mentor me as an anonymous username on the internet.

Right, and that was before all the kids were on facebook, or twitter, or whatever.

You're talking about a time when the only online-networking being done, was being done on a desktop computer. IME, less than 1 out of every 100 children in 2000 were actually using desktop computer.

We are now in a time were 95/100 children are using some sort of portable personal computer that is with them all the time.

> I was homeschooled and moved every 3-6 months growing up and in spite of all these "handicaps" I still learned to make several IRL friends within a week or two of every new city I ended up in.

Which was perfectly possible when almost none of the kids were on computers. Now they all are.

> Stop worrying about making kids popular and making them conform in ways beyond basic manners and respect. The roads less traveled are more likely to kelp a kid develop atypical skillsets which will give them an advantage in the job market later.

I'm afraid you're not a good example: you appear to lack some important skills wrt to the world as it is.

Think about it this way - there are people who didn't bother putting up with the hardship of a reduced social network, and they ended up more successful than you.

I don't think you have any interaction with children. I do.

[lrvick]

I used to help run after school programs, and mentor quite a few Gen Z people in software engineering, sysadmin, etc.

Also, I used to be a kid.

Not every kid needs to conform to social norms.

To your point, plenty of kids will be successful with and without smartphones, but I would argue those that don't will likely be less prone to endless hours of doom scrolling on apps literally designed with casino-like dopamine drip algorithms to keep them addicted.

I choose to believe someone is not a shitty parent for trying to delay a child from having constant in-pocket access to addictive and harmful things.

[BlueTemplar]

> less than 1 out of every 100 children in 2000 were actually using desktop computer

Depends if you're talking about pre-teens or teenagers. ICQ alone had 100 million accounts in 2001. And I would expect teenagers to be amongst the first to use it.

[watwut]

> Stop worrying about making kids popular and making them conform in ways beyond basic manners and respect.

They dont worry about them being "popular". They worry about them being excluded.

> I would say hi, show them a magic trick, do some comedy bits I had been working on, or share the latest anime I was into. Whatever. Making friends is the skill to build in a kid, not technology conformity.

How do you show latest anime without device? Where did you met kids willing to go to your house first time they met you?

[lrvick]

Why do you assume lack of android/ios devices means lack of computers. I would 100% help a kid build a desktop computer and maybe give them a linux tablet. App culture, which revolves around the major smartphone platforms, is where the addictive data harvesting apps come from, many of which refuse to run on anything but ios/android specifically because they are far more limited in data harvesting in a web browser where one can install privacy plugins.

A kid can use Freetube on a laptop or tablet for instance with no need for a Google account, and without targeting or ads.