Wherever I go I see young children glued to their phones and tablets. When I visit family/friends, their kids are doing the same thing. I've rented to families and lived with foreign families while on extended work trips overseas and whenever I interact with either, their kids are always somewhere in the background fixing their eyes on a screen.

I get it, kids can be a handful, demanding and a huge commitment. Everyone needs a break now and then but sticking an internet connected device in front of a 5 year old who has it running from the moment they wake up to the minute they goto bed isn't parenting.

On a quick sidenote, kids are drawn to me because I'm not technology. I pick them up, swing them around, play simple games like staring contests or hand reaction games and they can't get enough of it. It's sad that the parents aren't doing that sort of stuff and instead let their kids be raised by a bunch of internet content when they're yearning for human interaction. Maybe it's because I'm getting older but society is deteriorating and I don't see any way to reverse it. For every parent who chooses not to use technology to babysit their kids, there's 10,000 who will and that number is growing.

My now ex wife and I made the decision, years ago, to have our satellite tv cut off. This was before any kind of broadband ‘net access was offered out here. We both acknowledged that it was just too easy to plop our son (only child at the time) down in front of the tv and use it as a baby sitter.

Now that we are divorced, she uses the phones and internet access and streaming video as a bribe to get my girls to stay at her place. And I can tell a difference in their behavior as a result. There are other factors, but that’s a big one.

There is no reason for any child under the age of 16 to have cellphones, iPads, or computers with unfettered access to the internet short of school research. In that case, the online activity needs to be done under direct adult supervision.

Some TV is OK, but that too needs to be closely monitored by responsible adults and strict time limits should be applied.

Children need to have their brains put to work in order for them to develop and mature as opposed to selfish "parents" planting them in front of the one-eyed brain sucker.

Me? Old-fashioned? Guilty. The human race got along just fine for a few million years without smart phones and we were far better off because of it. If I had kids today (and thank God I don't) there is not a chance in hell they would have a smart phone.

This ship sailed with the advent of TV. Internet devices have just kept it going.

Before I was a parent, I thought I had parenting all figured out.

Now I have three kids. They’re all different, if I didn’t know better I’d swear they were all adopted...from aliens...from different solar systems.

Parents know their kids best and I respect that they have to raise them as they see fit. It’s the greatest freedom there is.

I had a lady once say something to my wife because our kids all had a screen at dinner.

What the lady didn’t know was that we had them out all day, they were exhausted and they were on the verge of going churnoble. That wasn’t the time for family conversation, fun games or learning. It was a time of survival. We had to eat and get home so we could get them to bed without causing a scene. They were great all day, but they were little at the time and we had stretched them to the limit.

Ever since that day, I’ve never really thought about what a parent should or shouldn’t do. I stick to me and mine. My advice and or judging looks won’t save a child from shitty parents anyways, so even if I’m right, it’s irrelevant.

not a parent , but I watch people , when I get out in public ,
when I go in to the store for four items , it generally takes me a half hour, because I get to watching how people act/react out in a social circumstance.

One thing I see a lot is that there are people who can't Not be stimulated , .

the new fad in restaurants ( that I loathe) is noise, lots of noise, and all hard surfaces.

concrete floors, big windows, metal on the ceiling to make the whole place louder.

they seem to think that tons of peripheral noise helps people eat.

then the people shout in to their cell phones while gobbing down food. so now its not just the radio blaring , we all listen to five people around us yapping about ...nothing.

how or when this stimulus dependency came about , I can't figure.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
they seem to think that tons of peripheral noise helps people eat.

Not that it has to do with the original topic, but if the restaurant designer did it on purpose, it was probably with the intent to keep patrons from staying too long. It obviously depends on the restaurant, but if it’s popular (and to some degree even if it’s not), they want us there just long enough to finish our meals and no longer. Although we may not recognize it consciously, it’s been determined that things like the type of music being played affects how long people stay at a business.

Were we better off before all this technology? I don't know I mean I don't think we have ever been perfect. I have a hard time calling a society that puts Japanese people in internment camps and makes blacks drink from different water fountains "great". I think we should all acknowledge that society was far from perfect before the internet.

Not that we are perfect today. Far from it. But I don't know if you can blame technology. The same generation that did the above then raised a generation of that had kids who spit on our troops coming home from Vietnam. So not only were they not a perfect generation, as a generation they were also far from perfect parents.

Personally I love the internet and technology. Not that I also don't recognize what the OP is saying. Trust me when I see some 5 year old with mommy's phone watching TV while mommy is shopping I roll my eyes too. I don't think kids need constant entertainment. I think it is good for a kid to be bored from time to time and I think that it is good for them to be told no.

On a personal level I have struggled with it. My kids have never been given mine or my wife's phone in public in order to keep them content. When they were little if they acted up they got taken outside and reminded that we don't tolerate that behavior. But they do play video games and watch TV and I sometimes think they do it too much. However they are both in advanced classes including a program that takes them out of their regular classroom one day a week, they both get straight A's and both participate in sports and extracurricular activity. In fact i just got home from a science competition where my daughter and her lab partner took 3rd place out of 18 teams. On top of that they are both great kids. So for now I am going to go with what seems to be working even though I question it some times. What I do know is that there is no right answer for everyone and parents need to decide for their own kids what works and what doesn't.

How many people get annoyed by the noise, and don't come back? It doesn't bother me too much, but I've known several people who avoid noisy restaurants.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
they seem to think that tons of peripheral noise helps people eat.

Not that it has to do with the original topic, but if the restaurant designer did it on purpose, it was probably with the intent to keep patrons from staying too long. It obviously depends on the restaurant, but if it’s popular (and to some degree even if it’s not), they want us there just long enough to finish our meals and no longer. Although we may not recognize it consciously, it’s been determined that things like the type of music being played affects how long people stay at a business.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
How many people get annoyed by the noise, and don't come back?

I agree completely because I’m one of them, but depending on the restaurant the owner(s) may not care. A large number of restaurants fail and in my experience that’s probably at least partly due to the fact that it’s assumed that a place that’s popular in the beginning when it’s new and novel will continue to enjoy the same popularity forever. If that’s what someone thinks, he won’t worry about losing a few possible repeat customers.

On the other hand, they may simply be oblivious. That clearly seems to be the case, for example, with whoever has chosen the music played at my local supermarket. At times it has been the most obnoxious stuff imaginable, but the reason it was chosen clearly wasn’t to keep shoppers from staying too long. I’ve found that many, many people who are responsible for such things are driven solely by their own tastes and preferences and either don’t care what other people prefer, or—incredible but true—assume everyone else likes what they do.