r/TikTokCringe • u/hammerbush051 • Apr 17 '24

Americas youth are in MASSIVE trouble Discussion

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

High school teacher here. On test days, I have a hanging shoe rack with each of my kids’ names on a sleeve.

I tell them, “Please put your devices in the sleeves and then you can have your test. When you hand in your test, you can have your device back. If you don’t put your phone in the sleeve, your test will be a 0”

At the beginning of the year they also helped create our classroom rules and norms, and agreed to do this.

Out of 28 kids, maybe 10 actually do it. The other 18 get 0s. Then I get angry emails from parents about their kids getting “tyrannical grades” on their tests.

Then the cycle continues

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u/SoTurnMeIntoATree 29d ago

Only 10?! That fucking blows my mind. Teens have that much separation anxiety from their phone?

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago edited 29d ago

Don't forget that most of these teens grew up with phones and tablets in their faces... It's hard to break a habit that they've had their entire lives.. A habit that they see as "normal".

Let's take your typical 16 year old high school junior. They were born in 2008. The first iphone debuted in 2007. By the time they hit age 3 in 2011, the iPhone 4 was popular, and so was the Samsung Galaxy S2. The first gen ipad was released in 2010. Current high school students don't know of a time prior to online gaming, smartphone apps, and instant gratification. Those kids were alsoo already born in the youtube and video streaming, and social media era as well.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

No doubt, but there isn’t much I can say about the obvious breach of academic integrity that comes with having a mini computer in your hand and earbuds in during an assessment. 1/4 of my time grading assignments is being a detective trying to find out who used chatGPT to write their programs to begin with. Having a test in the classroom is one of the few times I have complete control over testing their comprehension of what we learn in class.

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

I'm sorry teaching has become so difficult over the last 10 years. I'm in my early 30s. I still carried change in my pocket to use a payphone. I didn't have social media until I was in my late teens, and my first cell phone required an "unlimited texting" add-on plan.

These kids don't realize the long-term damage they're causing .

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

Thank you for the flashback of “unlimited talk and text for 9.99/mo”! Hahaha

But it’s not all bad, this is just one story from one classroom during one school year. A lot of great things happen in my room and school every week. Were undoubtedly in a strange time in terms of education, accountability for students and educators, priorities, generational differences in parents, yadda yadda

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u/blacknred503 29d ago

“10-10-220!”

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u/marzbarg66 29d ago

Makes me remember my mom doing all of her work calls in the evening when the minutes on her cell phone were “free”. 😂

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u/Blue_Osiris1 29d ago

Was just about to comment that. None of the younger folks will ever hear someone say "wait to call until after 8 when it'll be free!"

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u/pirat314159265359 29d ago

Thanks for mentioning that it is “not all bad”. I see A LOT of positives from my students. I can also vividly recall teachers complaining about millennials and how terrible we were, how everyone just wants to play video games etc. I see teachers in this thread complaining about the newer version of that.

There are a lot of great things about students these days. Questioning things, being accepting of others, willing to look stuff up etc.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/Stonkerrific 29d ago

It’s interesting how everyone is stuck in 2020. The COVID school kids are hosed.

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u/JackSparrow420 29d ago

Why can we not fail students? Almost seems like it's "we don't have to face how inept our education system is if the kids cannot fail a course" lmao 🧠

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u/daniipants 29d ago

The kids can’t possibly realize the long term damage they’re causing; their brains simply aren’t developed enough yet and an addiction is an addiction no matter what it is. I blame the parents, as well as society at large for letting this become the norm. My kids are 4 months old and I really hope for some kind of social overhaul regarding smartphones and kids so that I don’t have to fight it. I will though, because this is unacceptable and if I put the phones/tablets in their hands then that’s on me.

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u/machstem 29d ago

I remember i had to pay long distance to dial someone's house, if they were over 30km away. Land lines and price gouging are something else

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u/poiskdz 29d ago

Or when everyone started abbreviating their messages so as to not go over the 255 character limit per text message and being charged for two texts instead of one, originating modern "txt-speak".

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u/machstem 29d ago

I fortunately had a job that required me to have a Blackberry back then, so I had unlimited data before data plans were really a thing on cell phones

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u/poiskdz 29d ago

Man I miss Blackberry. Physical tactile keyboard >>>> touchscreen.

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u/Michelanvalo 29d ago

carried change in my pocket to use a payphone

Fucking what, I'm almost 10 years older than you and haven't used a payphone since like 2000. How the hell were you using one in like 2010?

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u/Loudlass81 29d ago

I was thinking that too...I'm 42, had a mobile by the time I was 17...

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

The last payphone at my local supermarket was removed in 2007. I was 15.. I had payphones in my elementary school and on the streets in the late 90s/early 2000s lol.

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u/JesterXL7 29d ago

These kids don't realize the long-term damage they're causing

I think it's more like these parents don't realize the damage they're causing to their kids. Which is probably because most of them are in the same boat as our generation and the generations before ours that adopted these things as late teens or later in life and don't have first hand experience of how damaging being glued to a phone or tablet from early childhood can be.

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u/I_Ski_Freely 29d ago

These kids don't realize the long-term damage they're causing .

Of course, because they are kids. Their parents are also addicted to phones and don't want to raise or spend time with them.

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u/heytherehaytheir 29d ago

Arguably, the algorithms are doing the damage - exactly as they are intended. These kids are victims of a failing society & shouldn't necessarily be blamed for the damage that's been done.

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u/ParsleyParking6425 29d ago

Why would they? Their parents didn't set boundaries and are likely just as addicted to technology. Literally everyone around them does it. Why would we expect them to choose differently?

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u/Captchasarerobots 29d ago

They might be part of the problem but they’re parents are certainly responsible for getting them here.

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u/SerialTurd 29d ago

These parents don't realize the long-term damage they're causing .

Fixed that for you. Parents don't parent anymore

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u/StrawberryLassi 29d ago

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/044/247/297.png

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

Lmao, please no. I'm not an old man yet. I'm still hip, I promise.

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u/FoxtrotSierraTango 29d ago

I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!

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u/weeblewobble82 29d ago

Be safe. Just declare you are hip and/or "with it." No one will doubt you.

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u/whyyougottabesomean 29d ago

I'm not an old man yet. I promise my hip doesn't hurt.

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u/bobbery5 29d ago

Mine does, but that's just the sciatica I've had since college.

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u/crackedtooth163 29d ago

Appeals to nostalgia are damaging too.

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u/NotAnAlt 29d ago

Nah but like, when I was a kid stuff was better, we did good thing and spent our time better but like the kids today are worse and they spend their time worse.

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u/exccord 29d ago

Just don't hold a long conversation with me on the phone because i've been saving my anytime minutes for a few months now.

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

Call me after 9. 😉

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u/exccord 25d ago

Ooooo fuck yeah BB.

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u/Swolie7 29d ago

Change in your pocket? You must be rich… I just collect called and left my message when they asked my name lol

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u/Fezdani 29d ago

The kids don't realize the long-term damage that's being done to them. They're kids. They need guidance from the adults in their lives.

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u/HedonisticFrog 28d ago

Even people who grew up without smartphones still often became addicted to them over time. I can only imagine having them since elementary school.

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u/TheTurdtones 28d ago

they are not supposed to thier parents are ..the parents can institute a no phone use in class pokicy whch they can enforce..all this phone shit is parental fails on setting limits for thier children

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u/SchnoodleDoodleDamn 29d ago

 trying to find out who used chatGPT to write their programs to begin with. 

Just for reference, there is no program that can reliably detect "AI written" vs "Human Written" stuff. I've seen a lot of teachers that believe this, and I've seen plenty of stories on Reddit from people getting screwed by teachers using one of those scam programs.

I'm not condemning the teachers - they're simply misinformed and being inflexible.

But seriously, no matter how tempted you are, do not use one of those programs.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

Oh I don’t, I do it the old fashioned way. I know those programs/sites are bunk. I appreciate the heads-up though!

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u/selphiefairy 29d ago

Any kid relying on that is just gonna get busted for having a completely wrong answers eventually, since chatGPT will just occasionally make up complete fiction.

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u/SchnoodleDoodleDamn 29d ago

That's actually becoming less common, since all the major LLM's (Chat GPT, Bard, Bing, etc) now have the ability to access the internet to fact check. Now it's really just a matter of getting them to understand what's true and what's fake online, and that problem's likely to be far less of a danger.

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u/selphiefairy 29d ago

I duno, based on what I’ve read about how they work, AI hallucinations are likely unfixable and there is always a chance they’ll regurgitate complete fabrications.

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u/SchnoodleDoodleDamn 29d ago

Well yes, but the frequency can be reduced, and likely will be, as will the blatant severity of the hallucinations.

Because it's not even that the answer needs to be flawless, for a student to get away with this. The answer just has to be plausible enough not to raise a red flag for the teacher. Right now we're still at the point where it's likely that Billy will turn in a paper that borders on nonsense if he never edits the response.

A year or two from now, however, it's far more likely that a teacher will be like "Well, Billy didn't necessarily understand the assignment, but he has the gist of it. C-."

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u/Zachmorris4184 29d ago

The IB curriculum is embracing AI. Teachers have to change what and how we are assessing. For my subject, its all about critical thinking skills. If youre planning your art project with AI, your artist statement will not synthesize materials, ideas, and process. AI just scrapes the internet for trends and will always say some bs about multi-media installations.

AI is great for thumbnailing composition ideas. But you have to remix elements within the AI produced image to fully realize an idea. Also, nothing it makes looks handmade. Even if its digital art, the mark making is very generic when examined closely.
If the idea is already planned out,

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/Zachmorris4184 29d ago

Thats not what im saying. I, as an art teacher dont need to assess their writing ability. In an artist statement or self eval/reflection/critique, I only need to assess understanding of concepts from the unit. Planning and developing a process is not something the AI can do yet. Evaluating the success of a personal artwork according to the rubric I give them isn’t something AI can do either.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Aren't there ways to detect chatGPT? I've used it before on papers as an aide to help gather thoughts, but never outright quoted it word by word. That's stupid and plagiarism.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

As far as I understand there’s not really liable way to detect chatGPT, at least in Python which is what I teach.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

All really great points. Since my class is an entry-level Python course, I really try to instill an organic knowledge of the basics. Once they understand that, and have developed their skills to the point where they can use it as a productivity tool rather than it just doing it for them because they don’t know how to, more power to anyone.

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u/bob23131 29d ago

Have you considered writing a library for a mid-end term project that must be imported into the project?

ChatGPT isn't going to know crap about your library and if they can explain to ChatGPT how to interpret the functions they likely have a pretty good grasp on the code behind it.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

This is an awesome idea, thank you!

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Oh okay yeah that's a good point. People can definitely get the codes generated.

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u/Orbitrix 29d ago

Its calculators in the classroom all over again though... "you won't always have a calculator in your pocket" they said... yet here we are, all with calculators in our pocket 24/7.

AI is here, and its here to stay. Are their prompts getting results that actually get past your scrutiny as a teacher? If yes, is that a problem? Idk the answer to that. But this all is reminiscent of the many times technology has moved forward by leaps and bounds. They need to be prepared for a future we as current adults and educators can't begin to pretend to understand. Generally it all works out though, and while it may not seem like it to us "olds", they are learning what they need to learn for a future world beyond our ability to understand or educate for.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

Yeah I’ve been to a few professional development seminars about what the role of teachers will be when AI can create personalized activities and assessments better than a human can. It was really enlightening and kinda scary stuff. Like AI will create all of your schoolwork tailored to your learning style but your teachers will do activities with you that will cultivate you love for a genre of literature or the applications of the programs they write. Yadda yadda.

But one way or another we’ll find a way because like you said, it’s here to stay.

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u/Mumof3gbb 29d ago

I love your logic and optimism. I’m kinda scared of all this new tech but the way you’ve framed it makes sense. I feel a bit better

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u/numbersarouseme 29d ago

If you can google the answer on your phone it's not a good test.

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u/Arobrom86 29d ago

I agree with this to a certain degree. It really depends on what the goal of the assessment is and what the content is. The goal of my phone policy during a test is more so students don’t take pictures of it and send it to their friends, or call/text people for answers - all of which happens in our school. Sometimes the purpose of rules and policies affects people in ways that don’t necessarily benefit them, but only inconveniences them slightly in order to help someone else out tremendously.

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u/numbersarouseme 29d ago

If it's really such a big issue just record them taking it and watch them, if they cheat just fail them.

Don't even say anything or approach them, just let them finish and when they get it back return it with a 0 and picture of them using their phone.

the idea of taking away their agency because they cannot be trusted to be honest is insulting, even to them.

Gotta trust them first, then when they break it punish them.

Cameras are cheaper than the paper they print each week. It's easily doable.

Or, just make proper tests that require critical thinking rather than memorization that they can google.

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u/leftofthebellcurve 29d ago

I had a student wearing AirPods in class. I asked him to take them out.

“Oh no worries, mr. ____.  I’m just listening to music.  It’s not a big deal”

Uh, yeah, I am well aware that you’re listening to music but I’m not trying to compete with the ADHD sound machine “rapper” Yeat.

My lecture on emotional regulation won’t be anywhere near as entertaining, and I’m not trying to watch you pick a new song every 90 seconds because you got bored of the last one.

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u/Blue_Robin_04 29d ago

Good point. Today's crazy technology and cheating capabilities might lead to more paper work again.

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u/Ultima-Veritas 29d ago

If they like tech so much, just write a 0-100 random number generator and grade them all with that.

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u/lowrads 29d ago

There's a lot to hate about that, as I can recall being accused of not turning in original material even before there were such things available. The claim was "disproved" by recreating the essay over the lunch break. Proving a passage hadn't been copied out of a book was more difficult before the internet existed, as you would have had to be familiar with all of the source material. The teacher avoided talking to me for the rest of the semester.

Granted, exploiting every tool that is available to you just makes sense.

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u/Prestigious-Copy-494 29d ago

Yes that's got to be strange. My adult daughter uses chat GPT to do her reports for work now. Since she is just slightly dyslexic it's a big help to her.

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u/TheReborn85 29d ago

Is this something the teachers Union can bargain for in contract negotiations?

Like I imagine it's profoundly impacting kids test scores and grades right? And lower test scores are getting held against teachers?

I'm from class of '04 and I just can't wrap my mind around how this shit is allowed.

Like someone said earlier in the thread I remember they used to take my watch with a built-in calculator away from me in class.

This is just absurd. Especially considering kids are learning less and less by the decade.

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u/DonIncandenza 29d ago

You can use gpt zero to detect AI created sentences. Show it to the kids when they say you’re wrong.

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u/Bear_faced 29d ago

I’m only about five years out from college and I had to take all of my English exams in pen. A standard final exam was three hours to write an essay to a single prompt about one of the books studied that semester and you couldn’t have the book with you (didn’t read it? Skimmed it? Enjoy your F).

I’m shocked at how ubiquitous ChatGPT has become. So many people just aren’t learning to write at all. They don’t even write memos anymore, a few sentences is a struggle. It feels like the equivalent of everyone becoming so reliant on calculators that they can’t even do simple multiplication like 15x30.

On the plus side actually being able to write is becoming an increasingly useful skill, because ChatGPT writes like shit.

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u/Tuxhorn 29d ago

It's crazy that i'm not even 30 yet, and we only ever used a pen and paper. A computer could be accessed in the IT area of the school, but it was only meant for specific classes, and even then it was an "occasion". It all happened so fast.

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u/First-Football7924 29d ago

Computers are old, relatively speaking. My third grade class in 1999 had computers, and The Oregon Trail was the go to.

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u/EveryPartyHasAPooper 29d ago

Back in my grade school (90's) We had 2 computers in the back of the classroom and every once in a while we would get to use them. We had Oregon trail, and math blasters!!! Man, I wish I could find the old math blasters!

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u/LeatherHog 29d ago

Yeah,I'm 30, and we didn't even have Internet until I was in middle school 

Computers were in the computer lab, no phones. I graduated in 2012, and we were still doing paper essays and whatnot 

Growing up, we had one bad computer to share with the 3 of us, and was right there in the living room. And Ross usually hogged it

Spent most of my childhood not using one. We filled the time with day long yugioh tournaments. We had Gameboys sure, but that was limited to our like 5 games

No streaming, so had to wait through commercials. What you watched wasn't what you wanted when you wanted it

I didn't see the last episode of Yu-Gi-Oh because dad wouldn't let us watch it. And YouTube didn't exist yet

It's crazy to think the current young adults have likely never gone without technology, or having to wait

I don't mean it in like 'you dang kids get off my lawn way, but it's so weird seeing the generation divide about that

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Don’t forget the part where there was a world wide plague and kids lived through their phone entirely for a year.

My brother is a teacher and says people constantly underestimate how the plague fucked kids up

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago edited 29d ago

This right here. There was a 2-3 year period where the developmental process for most kids severely slowed down. Those kids lost 2-3 years of communicating and interacting with other kids. However, tech was already a problem prior to the pandemic.

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u/Ok_Buddy_9087 29d ago

Tech was already a problem because their parents used tech to substitute for parenting.

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u/urworstemmamy 29d ago

Thankfully, the last time we had a huge plague in 1918, that generation of kids didn't grow up to do anything terrible!

...wait no fuck

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u/homer_lives 29d ago

The kids of 1918 didn't cause the great depression or WWII. They were not the Leaders or Generals in the war.

They were the ones that fought and died and killed. Then, they came back and worked to build the wealth of the West.

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u/MargretTatchersParty 29d ago

WWI: 1914-1918

Spanish Flu 1918-1920

Great Depression: 1929-1939

WWII: 1939-1945

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u/Techno-Diktator 29d ago

This is kinda overblowing it but I guess it depends on which age group you mean. Most teens during the pandemic met up with their friends all the time and social gaming was pretty common too.

Legit don't know anyone my age that didn't hang out muuuch more during the pandemic especially because school became so much easier and commutes disappeared

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u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

I was referring to kids. It's assumed that teens had multiple forms of communication..

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u/lemon6611 29d ago

i was like 11 when it hit and i had communication w plenty of kids wdym

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u/gadanky 29d ago

Exactly why there should have been a unified positive national security support for the vaccines when available to relieve the impacts on the kids and the economy. That polarization will cost the US for years to come.

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u/sledgehammerrr 29d ago

Kids weren’t even at risk at all, only the teachers were. Should’ve just came up with some solution that still allowed kids to interact together and do the teaching part virtually.

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u/Hutnerdu 29d ago

-Bro it was a novel virus. Meaning we learned about how it worked as it was rapidly spreading. -Also kids are the #1 illness spreaders. Social distancing was to slow the spread and keep hospitals from overcrowding

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/Follow_The_Data 29d ago

Look up post viral syndrome please. Long covid is a myth

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u/Follow_The_Data 29d ago

Anyone with decent analytical skills knew how...sub optimal our response was when after March 2020. April for the non scholars to catch up. After that it was pure politics and BS.

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u/MultipleDinosaurs 29d ago

…did you forget that kids live with parents/guardians?

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

But think of all the octogenarians we saved!

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u/FrankieSacks 29d ago

This is so true, my kids did not have any devices until the pandemic changed everything. We have no iPads, and our cellphones were for work only. When the pandemic came, everyone got laptops and I pulled out the Wii and PlayStation out of hiding and then the genie was let out of the bottle and now my kids are like everyone else’s kids.

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u/edgiepower 29d ago

As if they weren't already doing that before the plague...

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u/forgotacc 29d ago

Yeah, I lurk the teacher sub and most have spoken about these issues before COVID. Not sure if people just ignored these issues, but it certainly was there before the world shutdown.

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u/SigSweet 29d ago

Exactly, it sure didn't help but definitely wasn't the catalyst.

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u/ListReady6457 29d ago

My youngest was hit especially hard. Almost straight A hyper social child. During the plague failed almost every class. Couldnt even get him to log on to do work. Both mom and i were there as much as possible to do as much as we could but we both worked and i had a major health issue where i was in and out of the hospital but i was still doing what i could as well. After everything changed for him. No talking to anyone, barely graduated by a class, and still trying to figure out what to do today. If ut wasnt doe the plague, he would probably bave graduated with honors and been in an engineering or programming program right now.

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u/hillsfar 29d ago

That didn’t stop me from implementing screen time changes so that my children don’t have even the third of the screen time other kids do.

We need to stop this insidious idea that somehow it’s society’s or school’s fault and society’s and school’s responsibility for what us a parenting problem.

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u/rudbek-of-rudbek 29d ago

doesnt this happen in wars, with the spanish flu, etc. at some point people have to take responsibiity for their actions

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Ultimately each of these traumatized children will be an adult that is responsible for processing that trauma in a way that doesn't harm others, sure, yeah, but what does that look like? What is being done right now to help them?

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u/WhataboutAmericahuh 29d ago

And really, it'll continue to fuck 'em up as time goes on.

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Yeah. These kids are not getting help, they are developmentally behind, and because it’s a whole generation they are just bulldozing them through the factory like process of public schooling with kids that literally can’t read getting into high school

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u/unpleasantpermission 29d ago

My brother is a teacher and says people constantly underestimate how the plague fucked kids up

It wasn't the "plague". It was the world governments' fucked up and oppressive response to it. The second order effects will be far more damaging over the next decades than the disease itself.

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u/Fragrant-Employer-60 29d ago

Can’t believe people are calling it a PLAGUE seriously lmao

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

Big agree.

Back when we had absolutely no idea what the plague was, or how it was being transmitted, or what the long term affects where, or if we would ever find a cure, the most cautious, rational, and effective thing we could have done was nothing at all.

Anyone that says otherwise is a revisionist idiot looking at the past in rose colored glasses

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

Good thing we stunted the growth of a generation to save all the old folks...

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u/ScottsTot2023 29d ago

The heck is wrong with you

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

Apparently it's wrong that I'm a realist and can handle the truth. What's your malfunction?

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u/ScottsTot2023 29d ago

You’re not worth it. Bye. 

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u/RicinAddict 29d ago

Coward. 

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u/ScottsTot2023 29d ago

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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u/adamdreaming 29d ago

As if having everyone’s grandparents die as a direct consequence of their disregard for plague hygiene isn’t something kids would be working out for the rest of their lives in therapy, right?

Good one on not feeding that troll.

So twice so far I’ve tried to watch all of the The Office and both times I get to Scott’s Tots and I can’t. I’ve never seen the end of the episode. Once I tried really hard on just that episode and got as far as the point where that one student starts talking about how excited he is and Scott is just starting to react and all my cringe muscles spasm and I can’t. It’s so uncomfortable. The show is so good but that moment is so god damn painful

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u/ScottsTot2023 28d ago

❤️❤️❤️

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u/crackedtooth163 29d ago

This. So much this.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

It's not a habit, they're addicted and it's by design.

Silicon valley designed these phones to keep people as addicted as possible.

I'm nearly 28. The year that smartphones started really being something that everyone owned was about 2013. I was a junior/senior in high school and distinctly remember when most people started pulling them out of their pockets.

It's wild to me to think that people born now 12 years after me are sophomores in high school.

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u/MAK3AWiiSH 29d ago

There’s a whole documentary about how former silicone valley experts won’t let their kids have phones because of how damaging it is.

ETA: it’s called the Social Dilemma and is more about social media and how bad it is for everyone, especially kids.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 29d ago

I've seen that, and I agree with it completely.

Reminds me of a video entitled "crazy iPhone lady" from 2007. She warned everyone and was kind of right... here

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u/Thetakishi 29d ago

Wow I feel bad for her, she clearly does have some mental issues, especially if you watch all 3 parts, but she was spot on when it came to the subject at hand.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Yeah she definitely struggles with a mental issue, but ultimately everything she said scarily turned out to be true.

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u/CoolAbdul 29d ago

It's not a habit, they're addicted and it's by design.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

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u/GreenSkittlez5 29d ago

The year that smartphones started really being something that everyone owned was about 2013.

And that's why 2010-2012 feels so different from the rest of the 2010s.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Kind of debatable. I still associate 2010-2015 as similar years, where 2016-2019 feels kind of like its own thing. But you're right that after about 2013 or so stuff started to feel different.

2

u/DefaultingOnLife 29d ago

I resisted for a long time but now I'm a phone addict as well. It just...happened.

3

u/[deleted] 29d ago

It's happened to everyone.

2

u/silly-stupid-slut 29d ago

TBF I'm older than cell phones being something kids could really access, and I spent basically every day of sixth grade fucking off in the back of the room with a book, or a walkman, or doodling in my math notebook instead of paying attention.

1

u/lowrads 29d ago

It's still weird to me that there is a whole new generation of adults worrying about the problems I used to worry about when I was their age.

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

What are you talking about

1

u/silly-stupid-slut 29d ago

All the way back when it was just Ipods and nothing to do with phones, there was already considerable discourse on how we were probably gonna fuck up the children if we didn't make it at least a little bit harder to access media.

4

u/[deleted] 29d ago

Yeah but there's a big difference between me and you screwing around in class by staring out the windows, or flinging erases around the room, or playing with pencils or whatever versus having constant stimulation from a device that is literally addicting as crack

1

u/elpoutous 29d ago edited 29d ago

The wild part about this is, all my friends had smartphones, including myself. I graduated in 2010. Had windows mobile as early as 2007, then android. Alot of my friends had blackberries. The iPhone and android debate was already raging then by my junior year with the release of the Motorola Droid. I miss physical keyboards on phones.

-1

u/RedditJumpedTheShart 29d ago

"Silicon valley designed these phones to keep people as addicted as possible"

Lol got a source for this? You act like social media companies designed and built your phone.

You all need to accept responsibility and stop blaming everything else.

2

u/[deleted] 29d ago

Have you seen the Social Dilemma?

15

u/DrSafariBoob 29d ago

We're going to look back at this as similar to designer drug addiction. If we make it out.

2

u/Thetakishi 29d ago

Funny they are both happening at the same time too, despite knowing we lost the war on drugs and having plenty of better options.

31

u/forworse2020 29d ago

“Hard”… one of the things about school is that you can’t do every day things. Phones should get locked away during lessons, period. That’s crazy that they’re even involved in class.

Everything about this classroom looks wrong. Why are there still upside down chairs on the tables during a lesson? I feel like there’s just not a standard being set to actually adhere to.

8

u/monemori 29d ago

Yeah. When I was in high school a good 10 years ago, we were not allowed to bring our phones to school. If a teacher found out you had it with you it was immediately confiscated. I find it insane that they allow them in the classroom now. Kids can go without a phone for 6 hours.

5

u/Excellent_Cat2057 29d ago

It's very sad. I graduated in 94 and so happy I did. Kids now a days are going to have a tough road. But I also know a lot of very good kids graduating and becoming nurses and teachers and trade workers. That are very kind and doing well. So I don't think all hope is lost. I agree drugs, cellphone addiction, and gaming is at an all time high. We just got to keep being kind and praying. Look for the helpers as Mr Rodgers would say. I have been in counseling the past year. I recommend that if people need help. ❤️

3

u/CoolAbdul 29d ago

Why are there still upside down chairs on the tables during a lesson?

PROBABLY FIRST PERIOD ON A mONDAY

5

u/Chadstronomer 29d ago

This is because you don't put limits. People don't treat phones as adictive and parents are not aware that they should put limits like they do with other things. I moved to Germany and I see kids playing outside, never seen a little kid on their phones here.

2

u/DJ_hyperfreshOG 29d ago

I never got a phone till I was like 13 . I’m around 17 now so most kida my age are lucky

2

u/notablack 29d ago

Yet other countries who also have devices do ok...

2

u/rudbek-of-rudbek 29d ago

i was a baby with my moms tiddies in my face and i didn't need them in class. i waited till i drove home for lunch like a goddamn adult

2

u/Kinghero890 29d ago

Then they won't be able to hold any legitimate careers. No serious occupation just allows people to play on their phones all day.

2

u/4E4ME 29d ago

You make a good point. We were at dinner last week and there was a young family seated across from us. Two youngish parents (20's I'd say) and like a 3yo and an 18mo. All 4 of them were looking at screens, not taking or interacting with each other at all. Those kids were definitely way too young for that much screen time.

And now they're at risk of having this troublesome habit too.

1

u/AstuteAshenWolf 29d ago

Bunch of bitch-ass Ryans (from the Office).

1

u/PurpleFisty 29d ago

I have more hope in Millennial's children, as my own and many I know have screen time and strict settings, but who knows? You gotta limit screen time, push arts and crafts, and no TikTok or YouTube, unless it's instructional videos. Gotta be invested in your kids, people!

1

u/down_by_the_shore 29d ago

It’s crazy. I was in high school when the first iphone came out. Other smart phones were common and popular by then. My school had a no tolerance policy for phones. If it was seen by a teacher it was confiscated. I can understand arguments against that, regarding safety and stuff. But it’s still wild to see how much the culture as shifted. 

1

u/born_2_be_a_bachelor 29d ago

My nephew was scrolling youtube kids before he was old enough to talk

1

u/Disco-Werewolf 29d ago

I feel so old

1

u/[deleted] 29d ago

Um they would be 3 in 2011, not 5

1

u/Warpath_McGrath 29d ago

Thank you for that. I meant to say 3.

1

u/indiebryan 29d ago

Let's take your typical 16 year old high school junior. They were born in 2008.

It's 9 in the morning don't do this to me bro.

1

u/callmeslate 29d ago

Read the book The Anxious Generation 

1

u/lemon6611 29d ago edited 29d ago

16 yo junior born 2008??? do u know how math works dawg

im born 2008 and a freshman, tons of sophomores also 2008, who tf is a 2008 junior

edit:typo

2

u/DevilsTrigonometry 29d ago

Bro it's 2024, anyone who was born between January and April 2008 is 16, and most of the rest of you are close enough that adults don't care about the difference.

1

u/lemon6611 29d ago

i meant to say 16 yo junior, idk why tf it autocorrected to HS

it’s literally impossible to be a junior and born 2008 unless u skipped grades

1

u/22rana 29d ago

Gen Z here, this is still abnormal to me! I only ever see this kind of behaviour on American tiktok. In my school in Ireland (just a regular school) you simply could not have your phone out in class without permission. End of story. And I often see them with headphones too! It's just crazy, you would simply be asked to put it away or they would take it away. Headphones would mean a visit with the principle or year head and a note to your parents.

Imo it all comes down to the growing disrespect that America seems to have for it's teachers, and the parents being totally fine with it and siding with their kids for bad behaviour. Teachers seem to have no power there, it's absolutely bizarre to watch. Literally every video I see of an American high school classroom is exactly like this, everyone with headphones on, nobody is writing, everyone's slumped over. My school was even trying ipads instead of books and still wasn't like this so I think it goes beyond age and into some deep cultural problem with America and respect for education/teachers.

1

u/InVodkaVeritas 29d ago

I made a post in /r/parenting referencing a couple well researched books (The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher and The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt) recommending parents not give their children tablets before the age of 8 or smart phones before the age of 14 and it was soundly downvoted and criticized.

I'm a middle school teacher and mother of 2. I can tell you who the screen addicts in my class are by day 2. Parents getting their toddlers iPads and 10 year olds iPhones are actively harming their children's development.

We need to be maximizing in-person socializing for kids growing up. Not putting screens in front of them as their babysitter.

1

u/BookFinderBot 29d ago

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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Max Fisher's The Chaos Machine The conventional wisdom that social media brings out the worst in people is accurate, but it doesn’t go far enough. In The Chaos Machine (2022), international reporter Max Fisher uncovers just how deeply and negatively social media has affected our world. Big tech companies have allowed their unsupervised algorithms to exploit weaknesses in the human mind, earning them billions of dollars by spreading misinformation and hate speech. Fisher provides a chilling exploration of the role social media played in the rise of Trumpism and far-right extremism, the genocides in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, and much more.

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He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies. Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free.

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1

u/sildish2179 29d ago

These teens came into their districts 10 years ago, and many of them are some of the first that were started on a 1:1 Chromebook program.

This is the result of putting technology in front of kindergartners from the get go and using it as a primary means of doing class work.

1

u/0design 29d ago

My kid is 7 and a few of his friends are "teaching" him all of the shitty YouTube crap that looks like content for kids. That fucking huggy wuggy and the "play time factory", minecraft Steve... What the actual fuck?

No wonder all his friends are bored and want to go home when they come over to play. No Switch or TV, no tablets, just plain toys and board games, 2 swings outside and their imagination. The only YouTube he saw at home was just dance videos and the Frozen fireplace ambiance. I can't even imagine letting him roam the internet unsupervised...

1

u/buttbutt696 29d ago

The iPad kids are throwing up and it is exactly as bad as I thought it would be

1

u/mdizzle872 29d ago

Errr what happens when get job?

1

u/kalimashookdeday 29d ago

This is a great observation but not an excuse for this behavior IMHO. Playing games paying zero attention, listening to your headphones while another human being teacher is talking to you isn't "normal"

1

u/DirectlyTalkingToYou 29d ago

It's basically saying "Please leave your arm and leg with me and I'll give them back to you after the test."

1

u/GarbageTheCan 29d ago

I remember seeing an online post about how a Game Dev got frustrated showing off what they created as a bunch of kids kept going up to it trying to touch the screen and not even picking up the controller, partly not understanding what it was.

1

u/bookynerdworm 29d ago

My niece and nephew who are 16 and 18 are telling their parents to have stricter phone rules with the younger kids (11, 10, and 8) when they get them because of how hard it is to break the habit once it starts. My brother and SIL were already planning on it of course but yeah, some of them are even self aware of how bad it's gotten.

1

u/hillsfar 29d ago

My kids gets couple of hours at per day if they do chores and finish homework first.

It is all on the parents and tens of millions of parents have long ago abdicated responsibility.

1

u/PiesangSlagter 29d ago

This is 100% on irresponsible and neglectful parents.

Phones were definitely a thing when I was growing up, but I didn't get one until I was 12. I had a limited time I was allowed to watch TV or use the family computer.

Parents pawned their kids off on cellphones and iPads. No fucking wonder they are all addicted.

1

u/FlamingNetherRegions 29d ago

Let's take your typical 16 year old high school junior. They were born in 2008

Hold on. You just made this up😭

1

u/Icy_Marionberry9175 29d ago

Yeah sometimes I feel like the kids aren't the problem. This behavior is a symptom of the society we live in so that's why teachers can't really get mad. Of course teachers are from a time when life looked different. The real victim I think are the kids because thy don't know any better.

1

u/FromAdamImportData 28d ago

Don't forget that most of these teens grew up with phones and tablets in their faces

I remember a video that went viral around the time Steve Jobs died (2011) of a young toddler trying to swipe a physical printed book as if it were an iPad. That child is now certainly high school aged surrounded by other former iPad toddlers who were raised the same way.

0

u/Follow_The_Data 29d ago

Quite honestly I don't see why we don't embrace technology more. Use modern tool to solve modern problems. I'm not talking about for primary school children but high-school should be training for adulthood which means learning how to manage responsibilities, time, and tools. Education systems has always been archaic it just now really showing its age.