[jellyfishbeaver]

My dad used to tie up the Ethernet cable on our family's home router and hide it in a closet. The knots were to prevent us from reconnecting the router and putting it back before he got back home. He'd be able to tell if we tried since he was the only one able to tie that special knot :)

All to prevent my siblings and I from wasting our summers on Runescape or Miniclip or something. Looking back, the hours we were playing each day is nothing compared to the hours he spends scrolling through crap these days. My dad worked in such an intellectually stimulating job before, so it's baffling to see that he chooses to do this all day. I imagine most older parents are in the same boat these days. It has made me hate social media, YouTube, short videos, et al. even more

[dustbunny]

Maybe the intellectually stimulating job made him more predisposed to needing the constant dopamine drip of the screen.

[xnx]

We need a new generation of "Parental Controls", not for parents controlling what their kids can do, but adults controlling what their parents can do.

[jayd16]

I guess a trip to RadioShack for a cable of your own was out of the question, eh?

[steine65]

And get caught with a new cable instead? No thanks. My father used similar methods of limiting tech time.

[ivape]

Addiction can happen to anyone, at any time, with anything.

[dumbasrocks]

Same router story but my dad still spends his time reading books all day. I think the barrier of unfamiliarity with social media (and perhaps the disgust of an untailored algorithm) is just high enough that he will never

[calmworm]

This special knot prevented the cable from transmitting a signal?

[MichaelDickens]

I'm not OP but presumably the knot made it so that the cable wasn't long enough to reach the computer.

[jellyfishbeaver]

Yep, exactly. You couldn't reach the computer unless you undid the knot.

[Sammi]

> and hide it in a closet

[exe34]

it's like a seal to show that they had disobeyed.

[unfunco]

It makes it shorter.

[analog31]

Obligatory reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot