[DougN7]

My mother and I were just discussing how dumb people have gotten in just the past few years. It’s like they don’t think any deeper than a meme - no nuance is considered. You easily see it in the political realm. The only thing we can come up with is social media being the cause. I remember seeing a video (on Reddit) of a teacher teaching his class, and 100% of the students were looking at phones instead of listening. Say what you want about the quality of the teacher, students, etc, but that level of disengagement didn’t happen before social media.

[AnimalMuppet]

At least in the political realm, memes have worked for a very long time - at least more than a century, maybe even millennia. An example: "Ma, ma, where's my pa? Gone to the White House. Ha ha ha." Another: "Peace. Bread. Land."

So I would say that there seems to have always been a segment of the population on whom political memes were effective - probably more effective than longer discourse.

Now, you could argue that more people are in that camp today. I can't argue with that; I don't have any data one way or the other. But I would at least suggest the alternate possibility that it's more visible today that people are in that camp.

[mike_hearn]

I went to school before smartphones. Back then we used to stare out of the window, throw paper aeroplanes, whisper talk to friends or - mostly - just sit there being insanely bored and checked out. There was never a time when teachers all held their students in rapt attention.

At least with the phones those students might well be learning something, or at least getting some reading practice. Even in the most pessimal case it's not useless. When I was at school there were still teachers whose entire teaching methodology was writing out notes and diagrams on a rolling blackboard, and we copied them onto paper. Literally just human photocopiers! You think we were engaged? No chance. I remember about three facts from years of being in those classes, and those facts are useless. Even scrolling Instagram would have been 10x more educational!

[DougN7]

I understand the sentiment, but I have a hard time seeing any educational value is 99% of anything I’ve ever seen on tiktok. There definitely were bad teaches, and I assume still are. But the window and paper airplanes weren’t tuned to suck you in for hours and hold your attention. I still think things are legitimately worse today.

[mwcampbell]

Then forbid those specific apps, not the device itself.