'This is what it's like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing'

[Dick Whitman]

Obama wasn't interviewed for this piece in the Washington Post, but it's pretty sobering, especially if you have kids.

This is what it's like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing

Katherine Pommerening’s iPhone is the place where all of her friends are always hanging out. So it’s the place where she is, too. She’s on it after it rings to wake her up in the mornings. She’s on it at school, when she can sneak it. She’s on it while her 8-year-old sister, Lila, is building crafts out of beads. She sets it down to play basketball, to skateboard, to watch PG-13 comedies and sometimes to eat dinner, but when she picks it back up, she might have 64 unread messages.

Now she’s on it in the living room of her big house in McLean, Va., while she explains what it’s like to be a 13-year-old today.

“Over 100 likes is good, for me. And comments. You just comment to make a joke or tag someone.”

 

[Big Circus]

My oldest is only about half her age, but this quote hit me like a ton of bricks.

“I don’t feel like a child anymore” she says. “I’m not doing anything childish. At the end of sixth grade” — when all her friends got phones and downloaded Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter — “I just stopped doing everything I normally did. Playing games at recess, playing with toys, all of it, done.”

 

[Dick Whitman]

My boy is almost 7, and sometimes it can be a chore to get him to get off his ass and get outside. He used to love it, and he usually does once he gets out there. We have tried to limit screen time - though we both should talk, I guess - but the school, honest to God, gets them addicted. He's playing video games at school. Violent ones sometimes. The teacher told us he "often gravitates toward the computer more than to his peers, during free time."

It was implied that this was a good thing. At the very least, she saw it as neutral.

My aunt also gives my 3-year-old her phone to play on all ****ing day. It's beyond irritating at this point. It's dangerous.

 

[Alma]

My aunt also gives my 3-year-old her phone to play on all ****ing day. It's beyond irritating at this point. It's dangerous.

Tell your aunt to stop doing that.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Tell your aunt to stop doing that.

None of the tribal elders listen to us.

She starts pre-school next year, so at least she'll be around kids.

 

[Cosmo]

It's not only the kids.

I'm a grown ass man, and I'll find myself watching games at bars, interacting on Twitter more than I chat with the people next to me. It's a bad habit that I've gotten into. The phone is a damn crutch.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'm on call with my work 24/7 and I'm on call with Mrs. Whitman 24/7. Ugh. Otherwise I'd love to put it away sometimes.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I'm on call for usually two weeks a month. I have my phone in my pocket, and I turn the volume way up. Just because I have it with me all the time doesn't mean I even need to look at it most of the time.

The one thing I'm "guilty" of is taking pictures of my kids when, according to most harrumphs I hear, I should just "enjoy" them instead, whatever the hell that means.

Oh, and we have a rule in my family: If my wife or I tell you not to do something with our kids and you do it anyway, you don't get to see our kids again for a while.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

"(Fill in the blank) Is Ruining Our Children." I've been reading articles on that theme since I learned to read a long, long time ago. Notice that the protagonist is a 13-year old girl. Fear of teenage sexuality is at the heart of most of such articles.

 

[Dick Whitman]

"(Fill in the blank) Is Ruining Our Children." I've been reading articles on that theme since I learned to read a long, long time ago. Notice that the protagonist is a 13-year old girl. Fear of teenage sexuality is at the heart of most of such articles.

You're right. It seems perfectly healthy for 13-year-olds to obsess about "likes" on Instagram.

 

[Ace]

You're right. It seems perfectly healthy for 13-year-olds to obsess about "likes" on Instagram.

It's perfectly normal for 13-year-old girls (and boys) to worry about being popular. This quantifies it.

 

[HC]

One of the great joys of singing in Europe is that I don't take my cell phone. Amazing how relaxing it is to not be plugged in but when I get home I'm right back where I left off.

 

[Alma]

"(Fill in the blank) Is Ruining Our Children." I've been reading articles on that theme since I learned to read a long, long time ago. Notice that the protagonist is a 13-year old girl. Fear of teenage sexuality is at the heart of most of such articles.

Nah. It's bad. Internet addiction is bad. We don't even appreciate how bad it is yet. Give it 30 years.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Obama wasn't interviewed for this piece in the Washington Post, but it's pretty sobering, especially if you have kids.

This is what it's like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing

Katherine Pommerening’s iPhone is the place where all of her friends are always hanging out. So it’s the place where she is, too. She’s on it after it rings to wake her up in the mornings. She’s on it at school, when she can sneak it. She’s on it while her 8-year-old sister, Lila, is building crafts out of beads. She sets it down to play basketball, to skateboard, to watch PG-13 comedies and sometimes to eat dinner, but when she picks it back up, she might have 64 unread messages.

Now she’s on it in the living room of her big house in McLean, Va., while she explains what it’s like to be a 13-year-old today.

“Over 100 likes is good, for me. And comments. You just comment to make a joke or tag someone.”

Replace iPhone with SJ.com and you've written an article about several of the posters here.

 

[Alma]

I'm on call with my work 24/7 and I'm on call with Mrs. Whitman 24/7. Ugh. Otherwise I'd love to put it away sometimes.

IMO, being on call 24/7 makes one less effective cumulatively in any role. Any role.

Human on demand is ruinous over time.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Replace iPhone with SJ.com and you've written an article about several of the posters here.

Eh, I just like to shoot the **** with people about stuff.

 

[Ace]

Another thing we wring our hands over is kids' activities being so structured.

But if we didn't ahve our kids in sports and music and such, the concern is that they would be fiddling with their phone, playing video games or loitering outside the 7-11 (Wait. That last was me.)

Putting them in structured activities at least keeps them unplugged for a while.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Another thing we wring our hands over is kids' activities being so structured.

But if we didn't ahve our kids in sports and music and such, the concern is that they would be fiddling with their phone, playing video games or loitering outside the 7-11 (Wait. That last was me.)

Putting them in structured activities at least keeps them unplugged for a while.

Yeah, Huck Finn isn't walking through that door.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Eh, I just like to shoot the **** with people about stuff.

We're all in it for the likes.

 

[Songbird]

Nah, I want barbershop folk talkin' 'bout my posts. Or at least Mike Wilbon.