“They should just protest/go on the street/revolt/start a revolution” when talking about Russia or, to some extend, other countries like China or Noth Korea.

It’s not even that this is a highly brutal military state that will kill you without blinking. Or that they will not just put you in prison but threaten your family if you dare to resist. It’s not even the cover ups, or that no news on easily accessible media would run a story about your case.

I’d argue it is the underestimation of how propaganda gets you. All of you. All of us, me and you. No one is immune. And I’m not just talking about “oh our government and leader is the best”. I’m talking about generations of oppression where you know that this one uncle or neighbor who tried something, who tried to be different, to change something, just brought destruction over himself and his loved ones. It’s the propaganda of “just look away, don’t bother, your actions won’t change anything, just try to live your life as nicely as you can”.

Thinking people who were raised with this mindset, by people who have the same mindset because they in turn were raised by people with a similar mindset, can just “get up and revolt” is so naive.

I also want that, sure, I also want them to get up and revolt, desperately, but man, you have no idea, do you.

It’s twins actually, Lulu and Nana. The gene editing might have increased their cognitive function.

I don’t know why, but I cannot bring myself to condemn the editing.

Are you friends with Dave?

It’s interesting you point that out. It seems it shows the grip of Reddit and Lemmy as well. Since I am not in the US I am not in touch with their regular news outlets and media. I’ve never seen the Dem shooter before. Somehow he wasn’t that talked about.

Bottom left is the Trump shooter, bottom right the alleged Kirk shooter. No clue who the upper left dude is

In my opinion, watching TV was a better experience and healthier and better, including for - but not limited to - children.

(I’ll preface this by saying I am referring to German TV, where you would get one break of commercial ads of 5-8 minutes within a show of 30 minutes, and two such breaks within a show of 60 minutes. I know in the US you get more, shorter commercial breaks. I think that makes the argument a bit stronger; however, I think it still applies to US TV as well.)

First off, you needed discipline. You want to watch that one show that airs at 3:10? You better be at home at 3:10 then. You had to make plans and keep this scheduled like an appointment, or plan to record it and program a VHS recorder.

Second, you also had to focus. No rewinding. If you miss it, you’ll have missed it. Stay focused. No phone scrolling, no attention span shortening, no second screen. You better focus your attention.

Third, you don’t binge watch. I love binge watching as much as the next person. But is it good for you? Cliffhangers are there for a reason. Having this excitement and thrill be resolved within seconds by starting the next episode takes away from the experience. Already knowing that you could just click on “play” any time you want takes something away from having to wait, waiting to know, thinking about it, imagining scenarios how something will play out in your head.

You get your daily or weekly dose of dopamine from this show, and that’s it. You don’t go on a bender. You are also automatically limiting your screen time. Especially for kids I think that is an important point. You can watch peppa pig endlessly on youtube, until you’re absolutely sick of it, or until your parents put an end to it. But if there is just one episode of pokemon a day, that’s it. You gotta wait until tomorrow. There’s nothing you can do.

Let’s even say you watch multiple shows in a row. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Art Attack, Galileo, The Simpsons. Every show gives you something else. Another plot, other emotions, other characters. You have to follow different storylines or have some non-fiction program points. That’s more diverse than watching 5 hours of handmaid’s tale or breaking bad in a row.

And even ads. Ads allow you to zap. Allow you to release this thrill that we now do with scrolling. But it, again, is self limited - you better be back in time before the commercials end. Who of us has not had days where they spent more time looking at trailers and thumbnails on Netflix etc than they spend watching an actual movie or show.

I have to add that I absolutely love your point about isolation and watching alone. I will absolutely add this the next time I am arguing that TV was better for our brains, kids, health, and sociality.

I even feel like when people from the same household are watching the same show, they now prefer to watch it alone in their rooms at their own comfort and pace. How sad is that? Is it more comfortable? Yeah sure, maybe. But TV was more social. Having to be quiet for the sake of the others. Waiting to ask “wait what did he say I didn’t get it” until there is a good time and waiting to reply until there is a good time again. This is effort. This is socializing. This is community. Using quotes from the show you watched as inside jokes.

Man I really miss TV.

You live in Germany don’t you

That, my friend, was the shower thought that followed the original shower thought

Apfelschorle

I mean, the dick punch was really unnecessary but I am glad that other families experience… Weirdness, I guess. And exclusion of a parent.

I can’t count how often I read and heard the advice to “just present your kid with two options to choose from”.

My kid, even before she became verbal, always wanted option C when presented with two options.

“Do you want this hat or this cap?” “Neither”

“Do you want this blue pants or these red sweatpants?” “I want… a green… dress” we don’t even have a green dress.

“Shall we go to the zoo today or do you want to go to the playground with Anna?” “I want to go on the trampoline” .

Thank you so much!! I wish I had more stuff to post but I’ll try 🫠 I think the guilt tripping is working

Thank you!

I 👏 want 👏 more 👏 girl 👏 content 👏

To be clear - I am talking about stereotypically “female” subjects, not about the gender itself, and I hope it goes without saying that I want people of all genders to be part of it. Some topics over on reddit are full of guys, NBs, and everyone else, but are what a bigoted 90s teacher would call “female” topics. I want more stuff of what that 90s teacher would call “girly” stuff.

I mean, something like a makeup community. Maybe skincare and fashion. Cleaning tips. Pre and post and peri pregnancy content. The parenting community on lemmy is super quiet. There is a sewing community but it is rather quiet too. I haven’t found a mending focused community yet. Boy there even isn’t a sailor moon community, like 😭 come on

I’m horrible in creating any content tho, so uhm, not sure I should be complaining.

The problem in this thread seems to be that children are seen as one homogenous group of people between ages 0 to 17. And you can either send you 5 year old to NYC without any technology by themselves, or check your 17 year old’s location 24/7. Forget about any kind of in between.

Like, of course I am “surveilling” my 3 year old, I am literally obligated to. I do this with my own eyes or leave them in the care of a capable person, although depending on the situation (relative, babysitter, daycare) it is still me who is liable when something happens.

I am happy to leave my 8 year old rumble around freely as long as they return home by a time that we agreed on. We can very well also agree on them calling if they won’t make it home by the agreed time, and if they don’t call or pick up their phone within an additional 30 minutes, I will check their location. This can be a known and agreed upon checking. And it is about mutual trust. I trust my kid at a certain age to be responsible and keep track of time, and be available by phone (unless otherwise agreed or if they don’t have a phone to begin with), as well as be where we agreed they would be, without checking. And I hope my kid will also trust me to keep up my side of the agreement. I won’t check unless it’s past return time and you are not picking up your phone.

This mutual trust is important in families. You deserve privacy, even if you are a kindergartener. This privacy will expand with age. This is like hiding your locked diary or leaving an open diary on your desk. You should not feel the need to hide it because I for sure won’t look at it. It is yours. Similarly, you can roam around freely even with an airtag. This thing is not for daily use.

Now, does my 17 year old need an airtag? To me they are basically an adult. Hell knows I had all the freedom in the world at that age. If they feel safer knowing I could check on them when they are on a night out, maybe we can keep a similar agreement as above. But otherwise it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.

I’m confused, this isn’t loss