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submitted 9 months ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] thehatfox@lemmy.world 157 points 9 months ago

Kids have been watching plenty of brain melting videos before AI came along too.

If you want kid’s brains to stay nice and firm don’t let them be raised by a tablet.

[-] swearengen@sopuli.xyz 32 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

We all know this yet the ones with kids who need to do something about it don't, as a result kids are getting dumber by the year.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades

TV had a limited capacity to mess kids up and it largely didn't. Youtube and the internet on then other hand are in the vast majority of kids pockets with 0 restrictions.

Reading the first hand reports of what this looks like from /r/teachers will black pill you on the future quicker than any post on climate change or war.

[-] Mobilityfuture@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago
[-] T156@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

The recent rise in home-schooling, and anti-intellectualism probably aren't helping much either, especially when you see things floating about here and there about how schools are hell-bent on brainwashing your children, and you should pull them out lest they be exposed to communism and the moral degradation of society or some such.

COVID does seem to be a part of it, but not all of it, since some of the data linked in the article shows a small decline in the scores before the pandemic and lockdowns. They could well have just exacerbated the underlying issues.

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[-] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 87 points 9 months ago

When I was a kid in the early 2000's we were vibing to a funny song about a famous pedophile, watching pictures of dead people on rotten.com and ofcourse porn on the late night tv. We also had candy resembling tobacco products as well as ones with racist names.

I think new parents especially often seem to forget all the similar things they did as a child and then apply different standards to their own kids. Yeah, it's not optimal, but they're probably going to grow up just fine.

[-] frogfruit@slrpnk.net 47 points 9 months ago

Millennials have higher rates of mental illness than previous generations. We are far from fine.

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago

I'd imagine an increasingly hostile world economy coupled with a then-looming but now beginning climate crisis might have a huge impact there.

[-] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There are multiple possible explanations for that. I don't see any direct link between the kind of content we millenials consumed in our childhood and the apparent rise in the number of mental health cases. I'd be willing to bet that the time spent consuming said content plays a much bigger factor.

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[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 12 points 9 months ago

Hard to believe this isn't simply due to improved detection, reporting and treatment options.

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[-] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 13 points 9 months ago

At least those horrible things required human effort to make, so there was a limited quantity. An unlimited supply of content that a human had no part in making is completely new territory

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[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

I remember candy cigarettes. My favorite was the one that also double as gum. But guess I miss the racist candy? Or did I not get the racism?

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[-] TheBananaKing@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago

This is pretty much the textbook definition of moral panic.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 31 points 9 months ago

Some claim their videos are educational, but quality varies. It's also deeply unlikely that any of these mass-produced AI videos are being pushed out in consultation with childhood development experts...

Yeah, I laughed when I hit this bit.

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[-] automaton@lemmy.world 66 points 9 months ago

I see this as a parenting failure, honestly. You're not supposed to just let your kid watch whatever without supervision IMHO. If you can't control what your kids watch, don't give them iPads!

[-] Pofski@lemmy.world 41 points 9 months ago

Covid has shown me that a lot of parents shouldn't be. During the period that everybody was stuck at home there was a large amount of people that found out that they don't know, or want, to raise a child and couldn't wait to get them to schools or activities just to get rid of them.

My ex used to say "you can't be expected to give up your social life just because you have a child". My kids and I are better off now.

[-] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 48 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

"It takes a village to raise a child" is an old expression for a reason. Historically (EDIT: And today in most of the world), parents wouldn't take care of their kids 24/7. They would have parents, siblings, neighbours and friends to help share the load.

The idea that parents and parents alone do 100% of everything to raise a child is a very modern western thing.

[-] swearengen@sopuli.xyz 14 points 9 months ago

We better adapt soon becuse the village is dead and it isn't coming back.

[-] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 11 points 9 months ago

For the families who can afford it, daycare is the replacement.

[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago

Where I live it’s literally cheaper to lease an electric car than it is to put a kid 5 days per week in daycare.

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[-] swearengen@sopuli.xyz 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

And you get crucified by them if you bring it up.

I understand battling the pull of phones and tablets with kids is hard but you're lying to your self if you think it's going to work out ok if you give in, every other kid has one how bad could it go really?

https://12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/

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[-] DannyMac@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

Yeah, keep them off YT and YT Kids. Jesus, the stupid brain melting human-made videos are worse enough as it is and kids love watching this shit over well-produced content. The only time I allow my kid to watch YT Kids is when I can watch too and it's on my phone. Recently she started watching a video with an anamorphic cat that was pregnant with a Zombie baby. Of course, YT is the one that offered her this content to watch anyway.

If you don't want to supervise what your kids watch, lock down their tablet or computer to only connect to streaming services you pay for. People are paid to produce this much higher quality content and then it is reviewed by people who know what should be acceptable for kids to watch. Compare this to some jackass on YouTube who can make the worst garbage imaginable, with or without the help of AI, and the YouTube algorithm is more than happy to shove it in your child's face. Which would you prefer your child to watch?

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[-] PHLAK@lemmy.world 56 points 9 months ago

No, no, the real problem is video games... and Dungeons & Dragons... and the mall of course... and comic books... and...

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[-] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 50 points 9 months ago
[-] Abnorc@lemm.ee 17 points 9 months ago

Back in my day, we only had access to face-melting content. I fear for children of the new age.

[-] Wootz@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Tsk.

Back when I was a kid, we watched hand crafted brain melting videos... On liveleak!

[-] viking@infosec.pub 17 points 9 months ago

rotten.com has entered the chat.

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[-] tourist@lemmy.world 39 points 9 months ago

My parents have been watching Brain Melting AI generated videos without me realising.

Seeing my mom watch a TTS voice read the top 6 blablabla was somewhat radicalising.

Shame on whoever pumps out this garbage.

[-] weeeeum@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Same except it's some horrifying shit like "Ukranians are Nazis, Russians are liberators, the west has fallen, traditional values are being destroyed by woke-ism, gays are destroying America, stop being a low value male", I could go on.

Watch Kyle Hill's video on AI generated content, and the dark forest theory applies to the internet. The internet has become truly hostile today and now I seek to avoid it when I can.

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[-] NotAtWork@startrek.website 35 points 9 months ago

“We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information.” ― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

[-] androogee@midwest.social 13 points 9 months ago

Far more worried about the ads than the AI generated videos tbh.

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[-] Gutless2615@ttrpg.network 32 points 9 months ago

Can’t be worse than pregnant Spider-Man and pregnant Hull get married to have Zelda’s baby while beating up Elsa or whatever the fuck was rotting kids brains like a decade ago

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 9 months ago

You ever see a YTP? There have been man-made brain melting videos on YouTube for years.

[-] DannyMac@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

I'd argue YTP are better produced than what this article is talking about. I love absurdist humor, but this article is not talking about that. I've seen some stupid fucking shit get offered to my child to watch and would prefer her to watch YTPs instead. She's banned from watching YouTube kids by herself.

[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago

Link to a good example of a mind melting AI made video please so I can avoid it for science?

(actually serious this time)

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[-] Guntrigger@feddit.ch 19 points 9 months ago
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[-] Zak@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago

Here's a video of a TED talk from 2018 talking about manually-generated brain-melting videos for kids. Teens and adults are watching variants of this crap now too.

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[-] blazera@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Im not a fan of AI content, but I wanna do a bit better than just old man yells at new thing. If the AI content was indistinguishable from human made there wouldnt be any outrage, how would we know? AI is distinguishable, and I think the main distinction is the lack of human goals in creating the content. AI is computer, it doesnt feel joy for creating, it doesnt have fun, it isnt trying to express itself, just mimicing expressions.

So Im watching some of these AI videos, and comparing to kids shows from before AI was a thing. It's a lot of shared elements, and any given few seconds from the AI videos seems normal. But watching it scene to scene is bizarre. It's really bad about continuity, and there's no story whatsoever or any worldbuilding. Which you might not associate with kids shows, but they were present, just simplified along with everything else. Shows like Dora and Blues Clues had overarching quests for the characters every episode, a continuity of events to follow, and recurring elements to remember in the next episode. These are all good learning elements for developing brains I feel, Swiper shows up and that's activating memories, he's an obstacle to this continuity and needs dealing with, and how to deal with it was explained last time. The AI content Im seeing has none of this

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[-] Eggyhead@kbin.run 17 points 9 months ago

With the U.S. election cycle ramping up, it’s not just the kids doing it now.

[-] ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 9 months ago

This title is shit. They're YouTube videos, not LSD.

[-] Bleach7297@lemmy.ca 14 points 9 months ago

"Brain melting" and "Without parents knowing" are the only two inherently scary things in that headline.

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[-] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago

My kids won't have access to youtube (or even the internet) for as long as I can make that happen. If they absolutely MUST watch something on a screen it will be downloaded nature documentaries, episodes of Sesame Street, or maybe really old Disney animations.

[-] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 20 points 9 months ago

Setup a Plex or Jellyfin server and put on it what you want them to watch. This is what I did and it has been a huge help.

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[-] excitingburp@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

As opposed to the human-made brain melting videos?

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this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
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