this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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I've heard about this since old people have been able to avoid technology until phones and tablets, and kids have been brought up with phones, tablets and consoles. There was only one window of people who grew up 'going on the computer'. My dad took some computer courses back in the DOS days but I wasn't really taught anything through school or any official body. It was really more from needing to troubleshoot things on the computer all the time and seeing the transition from dial-up to broadband when the internet became more accessible.
I want to mitigate this with my kids by restricting their phone time and giving them the oldest functioning Linux computer I can with relatively few restrictions. I have this dual core ultrabook with 4gb RAM from 2012 that still works with Mint on it now. They can play with that, figure out how to pirate games and get them running with WINE and whatever else on there.
I feel my issue will be other parents that are either boomer-style tech illiterate or just not as interested. They'll just get their kids Switches and tablets, then that's what my kids will want to play with their friends. Instead of learning how to host my own Luanti server for my kids and their friends, they'll want a tablet to go on Roblox or a Switch for Fortnite.
I agree with you somewhat, but i gotta say most of my peers who grew up pre smartphones/tablets being ubiquitous (late 2000s) with parents that were strict around screen time etc. “for their own good” didn’t really end up being thankful for the great habits that reinforced. Most just became resentful that they were excluded from partaking in their favorite activities with their friends (i.e. hanging out with irl friends in runescape or whatever you did in 2009)
I’m sorry if you felt that I misunderstood your point. It was not my intention to do a bad-faith reading, my apologies if I inadvertently did.
I think I was more trying to express my gut reaction to what I perceived as a similar line of reasoning to what I grew up hearing from parents (mine were cool but others around me) of “you can play video games for an hour on weekends as a treat but otherwise you have to be outside and play sports whether you want to or not”. These types of arguments never went over well with any of my friends, and usually just resulted in resentment and them finding ways to sneak away and be on the computer at my house or whatever.
I hope that clarifies my feelings I was trying to express!
What they wanted to do wasn’t “be alone in their bedroom”, it was “partake in the common social activity their peers are engaged in” (i.e hanging out online together). The part where they snuck away to my (or whatever) place happened rarely. A lot of the time they were just idk bored I suppose.
You could argue that hanging out online is worthless and a waste of time or whatever and in that case we’re both hypocrites for chatting away here.
I think it’s a reductive and bordering on some flavor of dehumanizing (kids are people with internality too) to look at the resentment people can feel towards their parents for this kind of thing (some even into adulthood mind you since it’s part of a larger parenting pattern) and go “ah well kids get upset over silly things they are too naive and stupid to be thankful for all the time”
Sorry if I’m putting words in your mouth, it is not my intent at all, and I’m trying not to characterize you stance as some boomer “pain builds character” thing because I don’t believe that’s where you’re coming from. It’s just that these lines of reasoning can stray dangerously close to that which doesn’t sit well with me.
Yeah; some parents have a physically / emotionally corporal approach to this, and it has detrimental effects.
That's what I'm thinking. They can have a computer they can talk to their friends on, but it won't be an ipad. I might even book them into typing and excel courses when they're older. They'll hate it, but you never actually get taught to do any of the basic things you do in the workplace. Like how every business uses excel but it's never formally taught anywhere. As far as I'm concerned all highschool mathematics should be done in spreadsheets instead of on scientific calculators.