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speedy_w_beans

The Social Dilemma

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My first suggestion is to not give any children a smart phone, tablet, or personal laptop.  My daughter didn't get a smartphone and a laptop until she was 18 and leaving for college.  During high school she had a prepaid flip phone for emergency calling and texting.  We had a common laptop placed in the kitchen where the entire family circulated.  She hated the arrangement, but we were acutely aware how much time her peers were wasting on social media.  In the end, her moving away from home with these gadgets still addicted her and her moral compass shifted thanks to peers and Reddit.

We put the same deal in place for our son, but he continued living at home with us while going to the local community college for his training.  He has a smartphone and personal computer, but he's retained a lot of his best qualities.  I think there are several differences:. He's a boy not a girl, doesn't care about his peers as much, is surrounded by his parents moreso than his peers, and is working on practical hands-on skills.

I read somewhere even certain people in Silicon Valley don't allow their children to use social media or have a smartphone.  That tells me everything right there.

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5 hours ago, speedy_w_beans said:

My first suggestion is to not give any children a smart phone, tablet, or personal laptop.  My daughter didn't get a smartphone and a laptop until she was 18 and leaving for college.  During high school she had a prepaid flip phone for emergency calling and texting.  We had a common laptop placed in the kitchen where the entire family circulated.  She hated the arrangement, but we were acutely aware how much time her peers were wasting on social media.  In the end, her moving away from home with these gadgets still addicted her and her moral compass shifted thanks to peers and Reddit.

We're heading that way with our daughter. A personal smart phone is not going to happen. She uses the tablet and PC to play games (monitored, of course) and do virtual schooling, but that's it. That's a very tough break with you're daughter. I'm sorry to hear that. We do the best we can for our kids with the best intentions but in the end, its up to them once they leave the nest. 

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What madness is this? I googled the drink:-

It turns out anything can be pickled—even soda! Pickle Soda Pop converts the flavor experience of sipping from a pickle jar into a sweet soda that's easy to gulp down. The carbonated condiment blends the deliciousness of a sour dill pickle with the sweetness of pure cane sugar to create a unique but mellow flavor.”

I have to ask.. who sips from a pickle jar? You’ll tell me you’re supposed to drink hotdog brine next... :)

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My wife makes sure that our house is run like a children's prison. 

No computer, tablets, smartphones, TV or consoles. Free range food. As in "salt free and sugar free to boot". Barbed wire fences. Searchlights. Guard towers. Decorated with cartoon animals (it is a children's prison, after all....)

If course, this means that I end up having to entertain the inmates instead of letting The Box do it for me and keep them out of my hair.

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Nothing like being awoken at 0530 with a child perched on my chest saying "entertain me, Daddy!"

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I just watched it.  I missed this topic because I've been sketching more = a lot of time on Pinterest!  lol... 

Thank you @speedy_w_beans for this thread.  It was eye opening.  Maybe, social media should come with a "Surgeon General's Warning: Social media can make you a fanatic or depressed (or both)."  But we should also know ourselves better.  I think our problem is that we think we are independent and strong.  

[1]  We are easily influenced "herd."  Yes, I am saying that I'm a worker-ant.  Wildebeests would jump into the mouth of a crocodile.  We are that.  The moment I think I'm strong and independent, I let my guard down, and get manipulated.   

It works like Dunning-Kruger effect.  People who think they are are "above average" are quite slow in reality. The sharpest 10% think they are rather average.  If an influencer says, "are you a meek worker-ant?"  Most says "Heck, no!"  But I would say, "oh, yes, thank you for reminding me that, so I can be on my toes, instead of just believing whatever you are saying."  

Do we think about words we use?  "Octopus" has 8 legs, but why is "October" the 10th month?  Why isn't "May" Pentaber?  April should be Quattober!  We use them simply because other people use them (i.e. following others).  That's just words, not social media, health or regulations that have greater ramifications.  If humans were independent, why would the suicide rate go up just because teenagers compare themselves to others?   

[2]  On guard; I assume people are trying to con me, but I choose to believe that vast majority are good people, just mislead sometimes.  Monkeys yell "Hawk" or "Snake" (in their language, of course) so others can hide.  Occasionally, one would lie to steal food from others.  Monkey society will banish him, but it still happens.  Humans are the same.  There are people who use social media to gain power or money.  1 in 1000 people you meet is a force for good.  What would that Tristan guy gain by telling people of the danger of social media that he helped to develop?  Very few are good like that.  Between dishonest folks and people with strong ethics, most just follow whichever they meet first. 

The trick is to know the difference.  When a politician says "doctors lie" people believe that and argue with doctors who are trying to save them.  I wonder if they would do that if they were on guard.  

[3]  I try to put logic before belief.  I might believe I won't die even if I was hit by a train. But the logic says otherwise.  Humans have enormous power to believe. Logic holds no candle to it.  On the good side, just thinking that 'stress makes the character,' your body makes less stress hormone, cortisol.  Some people die while believing doctors are lying to them.  That's sad, but logically, medical doctors know virus better than politicians.  

People often believe wrong things.  It's (remotely) possible that all the doctors and all the media in the world are lying all at once.  Or, one person could be lying to keep the economy going even at the risk of people dying.  Logically, which would be more likely?  

USA has lost 225,000 people now; roughly same as Hiroshima + Nagasaki nuclear bomb victims.  Imperial Japan surrendered immediately.  But some people "believe" that number is negligible because social media said so, and they want to believe.  

Japanese or German soldiers during WW2, believed the good outweighed the bad.  That's how they went down that hole.  Only when we know believing isn't logic, we can guard against bad influence that tries to change us. (Just like virus; how can we be on guard if we believe it doesn't exist?)   

After this many people dead, the economy will recover like nothing ever happened?  I wonder if it would be that simple.  But of course, social media will find a way to entertain us.  Maybe all the deaths had nothing to do with letting the guard down.  Maybe all the people were killed by zombies. So we go on a zombie hunting spree at every pizza place.  It's amazing what we humans believe.  We must know that we are that kind of species, so we wouldn't believe fictions so easily.  

iRYn9Tp.jpg

 

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I’ve just discovered Lego Mini figures in real’ish’ life situations on Pinterest @Juggular.

It had me in tears of laughter so much so I had to stop looking because my ribs were starting to ache. The scenes people had Darth Vader in with Stormtroopers was just to much.

I suppose Social Media is the new alcohol, it’s not all bad, but to much of a good thing can go horribly wrong if ones not careful.

 

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3 hours ago, Juggular said:

Humans have enormous power to believe. Logic holds no candle to it. 

Thank you. I think this concise statement sums up most of the day to day issues I have with interpersonal interactions in these times. I am ruled mostly by reason and facts to come to logical conclusions and its a struggle to comprehend belief over logic. Its completely confounding to me. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories when the facts are right in front of us. 

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With belief comes prejudice, good or bad.  

My wife had a trash can rolling in the backyard for like 2 years.  She uses it to collect leaves or garden debris. It can be seen from both sides.  To the South side neighbor, my wife apologized for looking bad.  But the retired teacher didn't even notice it because she likes my wife.  She asks us to accept parcels for her while she's away, and she brings chocolates.  Hamantasch every year too.  We only get them freshly baked chocolate cakes once in a blue moon.  She's nice to us, but 2 neighbors said she's terrible, I'm glad we didn't listen to that, and got to know her on our own term. 

On the other side, the guy who sold the house to us said that the Northern neighbor is "scary."  But when he was moving out, he said, "well, that neighbor turned out to be nice. I wish I had known him."  Anyway, that neighbor brought a bottle of cold beer when I was finally mowing the backyard.  He did notice that I didn't mow it for half a year.  It is shady and grass doesn't grow well.  I said, "I'm sorry, I kept it like a wild meadow."  He said, "I told my wife you must've planned to have the grass seeds ripen."  I said, "You did? Thank you, but No. Being lazy was not a plan. It's just me being me."   

Prejudice is a quick-belief.  I'm glad that neighbors quickly believe that we are not slobs, even though we are.  But there is other sides of the coin, when people automatically believe badly of people they don't really know.  If we quickly believed stories of our neighbors, we wouldn't have known them.  Such prejudices can be collected via social network, like "We have 9,000 examples of why yellow, red, black, white, silver and purple people are bad." 

If you collect only the bad examples of Tamiya, we'll "quickly-believe" that Tamiya is just horrible.  I would rather avoid that.  Life has bad sides, why choose to be consumed by that?  We know Tamiya has faults, but we love Tamiya with their flaws.  I can't make decisions for other people. But I wish people be gentlemen and correct things we need to correct.  As they say, "be kind, because everybody you meet is fighting a hard battle (that you don't know about)."  That would be my choice.  

Or, I could look into the dark side for long and hard, until the abyss looks back at me. Yikes!  I wouldn't like Darth-me.  

(I don't mind consuming this kind of darkness, though... thanks to @Re-Bugged, lol...) 

nKySkiI.jpg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/395402042259994192/?nic_v2=1a3n3FE1c

 

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We've tried, ish, to keep the kids off computers and iPads, but with recent events, classes where all online, and now they can use them better than us... 

I read somewhere (Probably Facebook....🙄), about a teacher asking a class, "What my parents don't know about social media" , turns out most have secret accounts and know how to delete messages etc, which is kind of worrying.

 

I've found myself "unfollowing" friends recently, as a post a day would be another conspiracy theory or other 'Facts' that just weren't. Should I start read their posts again, so I keep a balance of 'news ' ?

(Ps, what is, Pinterest and Reddit?)

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3 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

(Ps, what is, Pinterest and Reddit?)

Pinterest is basically pictures of anything you can imagine.

As the same images kept coming up on Google images and a lot couldn’t be copied like they used to, Pinterest kept coming up as an alternative but you could only see a small amount without signing up.

As there a was a Pinterest button on here at the bottom I thought I’d give it a go. Lots of fresh ideas on there for Tamiya which is all I use it for.

No idea what Reddit is, but I believe Serena Williams Husband is behind it?

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On 9/13/2020 at 12:30 PM, Gazzalene said:

The Press media and social media has vast influence on those that are silly or gullible to believe all they read and hear.

Scare tactics are the most common. The latest is Covid. now I realise people have died from this and its very sad,most have died from underlying issues at the time of catching covid. But I ask,as any country or region been hit so hard by covid cases that hospitals or governments could not cope?

Covid is now a new business, loads of new "experts" giving their views and advice on a subject they know nothing about. "experts" getting grants etc. These people do not want covid to go away,do they?  We will be wearing masks and afraid to go out for years.

 

Thats why I thought it was interesting ro hear Trump sayin „ Aint you all sick of all the television and news yapping abouf Covid this Covid that only Covid Covid Covid Covid...“

 

in my country, by far this year, died 900 people more then last year.

So is Covid really that dangerous, for my self last year I swear I had the Flu and my parents at least 4-5 times... this year not even once??

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5 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:

 

So is Covid really that dangerous, for my self last year I swear I had the Flu and my parents at least 4-5 times... this year not even once??

Well, it certainly looks like Croatia did a good job in the early stages, there are many social differences between Croatia and UK for example.  But don’t be too quick to celebrate. Report from the OECD

“While the Croatian Government declared the epidemiological situation under control in early June, with almost no new cases being reported for several weeks, the situation has progressively worsened over the summer. Throughout September, the number of new cases has been growing steadily, with the daily rate ranging from around 200 to 350 new cases per day. However, due to a rapid increase in recoveries, the number of active cases has decreased from 60 per 100 000 inhabitants to 30 since the beginning of the month. As of 28 of September, a total of 272 people have died from the virus, representing 6.6 deaths per 100 000 inhabitants”

And I’d also highlight this worrying incline of case rates.. looks like the R rate might be about to surpass 1.0 which would put you on the exponential scale. The numbers put Croatia in a similar position most other countries were in early in the year. So If we draw a positive its that Croatia has the benefit of hindsight analysis of containment measures, testing and tracking from other countries who count a much higher toll.

 

 

 

FD8B1A26-0155-4E65-A67E-DAF9E5B6F015.jpeg

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