Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dyauspitr 23 days ago
The internet is pretty stupid now and needs to be reigned in so our sons and daughters aren’t wide eyed zombies. Most of you won’t agree with me but it’s true and something needs to be done so I laud this.
6 comments

Our parents are the zombies who keep voting for the destruction of their civilization just to keep their housing prices propped up.
The internet is not the problem, the algo is.

With the internet I have free MIT lessons, documentaries, debates on Youtube!

I have access to scientific journals.

I can access every book ever written in the world.

The internet is not the issue here. The homepages/fyp on youtube, tiktok, instagram is. Books and the correct asthetic needs to be prioritized.

That internet will still exist, you just won’t be anonymous while accessing those resources.
My issue is that one.

AND that politicians and the sites WANT age verification because the sites wont have to fix their algo.

The block lists are crazy, even Youtube is blocked. Instead of fixing fyp and promoting non-brainrot content, they rather slap an age gate on it.

Chat control doesn’t make the internet any less stupid.
"give me a boy until he is seven and I will tell you the man he becomes"

there will be at least 1 entire generation of western kids that spectated short form content on screens since the moment of birth. based on aristotle, this entire generation is going to be retarded. the EU legislature in question enables legal spectation of content exchanged by a generation of the retarded. the optimal path forward seems to be ensuring that the next generation is not retarded, otherwise human extinction will be rapidly accelerated. I don't see how corporate destruction of individual privacy is going to help ensure that the next generation is not retarded.

Why just western kids? Cell phone and tablet use by little kids in Asia is on a whole other level.
The content children in Asia are exposed to seems to be entirely different in nature. For instance, with Tiktok: it intentionally pushes brainrot content for western users, while in China it pushes educational and in general positive content. Speaking only from what I've read on the subject, and I'm entirely willing to accept that I'm wrong about that, but the point remains that the screens aren't the issue, it's the content on them that is.
did you read any studies that accounted for brain rot short form content vs non brain rot short form content? from my n=1 sample, this content format is universally destructive, regardless as to specific information conveyed
This I can definitely agree with
I have no experience with the way children are raised in asia and am horrified that this phenomenon is not constrained to one particular region
Why did you think it was?
I hoped that my tunnel visioned perspective only applied to that which I could see. to be fair according to another commentor asian kids don't get pushed brain rot, so I suppose there are degrees to this
Well yes, China has their own TikTok pushing a different algorithm/recommendation

But the western world has been trending down in culture sadly... I was a teen in 2005 and it was grim even then. Everyone wanted to be black for some reason.

Why will basing them on Aristotle make them retarded?
the opening quote is attributed to aristotle
Ok but the opening quote doesn't say "I agree with this poster that these kids will be retarded"
My brother in christ, please, reading comprehension. The opening quote is saying that a child's formative years will decide how they turn out.
Yes but it doesnt back up the commenters subjective evaluation at all.
recommend to quickly spit out the bait before you get hooked
Your sons and daughters will still be wide eyed zombies, it's just that now your government will decide what mush to turn their brains into.
I heard about it 30 years ago