My 12 year old daughter was cranky this morning about Tik Tok being banned, then walked in ecstatic it was working again. I’m like “I wonder if Trump fixed Tik Tok,” and sure enough. She gave me a high five. My 6 year old son is already MAGA because the boys in his class love Trump.
Like inflation, this was a problem Trump created and now he’s getting credit for fixing it.
It's probably not a good idea to let a 12 year old use tiktok.
Better tell every parent in America
do you not remember being 12?
She watches videos about ancient Egypt, her friends lip syncing to songs, and knitting. The content on Tik Tok is way better than the trash on network TV or Hollywood movies.
I consider the Chinese oversight a plus. It’s much more sensitive to Asian values for the most part.
There are no “Asian values” on TikTok. TikTok is banned in China.
If it had values your 12yo wouldn’t be on it as Douyin has an age restriction of 18+, and prenatal consent if 13-17. Under 13 is prohibited. It also has time restriction of 40 minutes per day for 13-14yo and only accessible between 6am till 10pm. Not only that content is highly censored and restricted.
But keep living in a bubble that TikTok is totally fine.
prenatal consent
I don't think that means what you think it does.
Auto corrected. Can’t edit it now.
12 year olds having mood swings because their digital crack was banned for half a day. God help us all.
I don't have a 12 year old (yet) but my 8 year old has mood swings when they're too cold, too hot, have a headache, the tv remote doesn't work, their tablet runs out of time, their tablet runs out of battery, when they're hungry, thirsty, and/or tired (the preceding is non-inclusive, sometimes they have a mood swing for no perceptible reason).
Kids are people. People have feelings.
Yeah, but the times I've seen parents actually address/redirect bad behavior or of their kids in constructive ways are few and far apart, many sort of gave up or go to the other extreme. Small kids lack a great deal of emotional empathy and can wear a decent adult down very fast if right buttons are pushed at right time, so thats tricky to say at least. But then again its the greatest achievement in most people's lives (to raise their kids well just to be clear) so some proper effort long term should be spent here.
Good parenting consistently is hard, very hard and sometimes basically impossible, but the difference between parents who at least try hard to raise kids well and those who sort of gave up on their kids is striking (tiktok and other digital stuff is a good yardstick of overall state of this, when I see kids of other folks using it and clearly addicted I am losing all respect for those folks as parents, and its always a big bag of various failures and neglect coming along). Its heartbreaking to experience, especially the powerlessness.
Yea if I see a 4 year old with an ipad in a restaurant I lose respect for the parents. Parenting is hard, and everyone fails at some point but there are certain things I have never comprised on and social media/digital crack at a young age is one of them.
4 year olds have always gotten some amount of TV time, right? Is it that horrible for a parent to give them the TV time at the restaurant so they aren't running around / screaming / bothering other patrons instead? (Which of course you can also judge a parent for, but then the only answer may be for one parent to have to leave with the kid).
It doesn't mean the kid is also using the iPad at home for hours on end. Or consuming anything other than Bluey / Paw Patrol / Sing 2...
> so they aren't running around / screaming / bothering other patrons
Going to a restaurant when I was a young kid was considered a treat and special occasion, and if I misbehaved, I was out of there immediately. I quickly learned to sit in my chair, eat my food, and not be disruptive.
I think people in general these days act with a higher sense of entitlement, and that translates to parents believing that it's fine for them to go to restaurants because they want to, ignoring whether or not it's appropriate for their children, somehow also believing that they "deserve a break" and their kids' disruptive behaviors in public aren't their problem. But no, screw that: if your children won't behave at restaurants, don't bring them along. If you can't find a sitter, then you don't get to go either. (If you can't afford a sitter, then you probably can't afford going out to a restaurant either.)
> ...to give them the TV time at the restaurant...
I would have less of a problem with this if the kid was using headphones (I know, risky for their ears at a young age if they also have control of the volume), or if the tablet could be kept quiet enough so I can't hear it at my nearby table. But that's rarely the case.
But hey, sure, if you can give your kid TV time at a restaurant without me having to listen to it, I guess that's fine. I think that's a poor substitute for actually teaching kids how to behave in public, but I'm not that kid's parent, and that's just my opinion.
Well this attitude is why millennials are both failing to have enough kids and miserable as parents.
We had kids in our 20s and my daughter has been glued to her iPad since she was 2. Her grades are better than mine were at her age, she has artistic hobbies (makes jewelry, paints). She’s maybe a tidge slower than I was on reading, but that might be pandemic.
Note that Tik Tok is different than “social media” in that it doesn’t really allow for the gossip and backbiting within enclosed groups that typifies say Facebook. The most emotionally upsetting thing for her seems to be normal girl-girl social conflict, especially through her iMessage group chat.
Whats far more important than academic skills are social skills, how she fares on that aspect? Thats where real threat of this lies, not general population having IQ 80.
Life without good or at least normal social skills is pretty miserable in many aspects, almost can't be fixed once adult, and has much larger impact on what I call 'life success' than career can ever have.
Embrace monasticism.
Yeah, as a 12 yr old, I would've reacted completely calmly to Counterstrike being banned, or ICQ being banned, or MySpace being banned, or, worst of all, my access to lingerie models from clothing catalogues being destroyed...
Pretty sure I had a meltdown when my parents took away a copy of Lord of The Rings I was reading for the 4th time that week instead of doing my homework. Kids freak out about all kinds of stuff. Maybe it's more that 12 year olds are kids and not whatever bugbear you're worried about this week.
That's the relatively harmless bit! You left off "[banned for half a day], then being indoctrinated into supporting an anti-democratic despot for the rest of their lives".
Take this as an opportunity to teach them about why they shouldn't trust politicians. Make sure you tell them about Trump being the original supporter of the ban https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/900019185/trump-signs-executi...
She already doesn’t trust politicians, and knew that. We think he changed his mind because he was flattered by the girls lip syncing to his funny quips.
But it remains the first time in her life that a politician listened to a concern she had, and acted on it promptly to fix the problem.
The problem that that politician caused?
I'm sorry, your SIX year old is MAGA? I mean maybe this is an America thing, but my 6 year old knows literally nothing about any politician. How are 6 year olds even aware of Trump?
Trump isn't just a politician, he's a showman. He had a TV series for years. He has effectively hijacked US media to ensure that there is constant news about him.
Knowing nothing about politics is on par for being MAGA.
The presidential election is a public spectacle in America, with children’s TV networks getting into it: https://www.nickelodeonparents.com/nickelodeon-kids-pick-the....
Do you never drive through a neighborhood with signs all over the yards?
Listen to radio or news programs while kids are around?
If your kids asked about these things would you not try to explain?
Trump is famous to pre-teens in the same way Andrew Tate is, from what I can tell.
Cult of personality
The funny clown man who looks weird, dances weird, and speaks weird? Of course six year olds know about him!
Looks like you’re getting downvoted, but this exactly matches my kids’ HS friends who said “now I finally get MAGA - let’s make America like it was before the Tik Tok ban!”
There isn’t too much teens really feel on a day-to-day basis with politics and this is one of them. I’m not a Trump fan at all but his ability to spin things like this and the stimulus checks will need to be studied.
I doubt a study would be helpful for anyone else, except that he had a good read on when his chances of winning were best back before 2016.
Aside from that his popularity -- and ability to lie shamelessly and have enough people ignore it and vote for him -- is wrapped up in the entity "Trump". His play book is age old.
Trump gets away with lying because he also tells truths on important issues where others tell lies to force a false consensus. People are very sensitive to this stuff.
What are some examples?