Content Insider #974 – Kids
By Andy Marken – andy@markencom.cm
“You are like a daughter to me. Do not ever forget me. I will never forget you, and I will patiently wait for the day when I can take you in my arms again!” – Suleyman, Ayla: “The Daughter of War,” Dijital Sanatlar Production, 2017
If you’re a Gen Zer or early Millennial, you know growing up was a b**tch.
Worse yet, it won’t be long before you had kids of your own and you discovered they didn’t come with instruction manuals.
The parental “guidelines” you grew up with weren’t exactly valid in the world we live in today.
When we were all growing up, personal computers were just becoming a thing (late ‘90s) and it wasn’t until the early 2010s that smartphones were in the hands of half of the adults.
Yeah, school was boring because teachers didn’t constantly entertain you. They taught you stuff.
Parents were worse.
They didn’t entertain you and if you said you were bored, they said go out and do something – anything – just be home for dinner…or else!
You only had a few choices – sit on your a** and be bored, get together with your friends and do something, or get together with your guy/gal friends and do stuff you really shouldn’t do.
Looking back, we were pretty darn creative at doing things we really shouldn’t have been doing because it was either bordering on dangerous or downright dumb.
But as we look back, it was a helluva lot more fun.
Poor kids today are deprived of all of that.
Yep, today they’re too busy to be bored or to really think because they’re constantly in front of a screen playing games, watching YouTube Shorts/TikTok, or playing with/chatting with AI.
And before a few of our friends chastise us, we want to say there’s nothing wrong with playing games.
For the most part, they’re great for eye-hand coordination but even more importantly, especially for a large number of the computer/console games, they enhance your cognitive (memory, attention) functions; improve and keep your problem-solving skills sharp; and they’re fantastic for improving your spatial visualization.
If they’re action multi-player games – whether next to you on the couch or halfway around the world – they can help the younger crowd enhance their communications skills while encouraging them to collaborate with others and in many cases build relationships.
Of course, as with anything, too much of a good thing can be bad for you so it goes without saying…all things in moderation.
When it comes to computers/tablets, few parents get one for youngsters until they start preschool and begin asking tough/embarrassing questions that you respond by simply telling them to “look it up.”
On the plus side, the devices help kids with their cognitive development, their problem-solving skills and (let’s be honest) helps them prepare for when they face the harsh reality of living/working online when they get out in the “real world.”
Yeah, if they think being a kid is boring, they haven’t seen anything until they have to wade through a ton of emails every morning when they turn on their office system or have to wade through a ton of spreadsheets and paperwork to keep office/business work flowing in addition to having to deal with really smart and really dumb people.
And yes, we really do appreciate parents who plan ahead for plane trips and have earphones and a tablet loaded with games/movies to occupy their kids when they’re on our flights.
Thank you!!!!
But the almost ubiquitous smartphone is a totally different animal.
Depending on whose numbers you believe, there are between 5.2 and 5.6B smartphones in use in the world that has a population of approximately 8.3B people.
And yes, there is a bunch of those folks who have multiple devices…just in case.
However, when it comes to getting your youngster a smartphone, it’s really tough to say no to them when their counter is, “But everyone has one!”
Sometimes we really dislike our daughter’s pouty eye bit, but we held firm on our decision and made her wait until 8th grade (child psychologists and many adults recommended that).
Sure, there are valid reasons in today’s totally SC***ed up world to ensure the two of you can reach each other.
The best thing to do in that case is that case is get a basic feature phone…make calls/text with a few games that are available but that’s about it.
Actually, our kids were delighted when they finally got a smartphone (it was sort of a rite of passage) but then they reached an age where they and their friends rebelled and reverted back to the feature phone.
It probably won’t last but it’s important to take a win when you can.
It turns out sometimes they’re smarter/more mature than you give them credit for…sometimes.
Increasingly, they seem to be making more intelligent decisions on their own and thinking critically rather than because “everyone does it.”
But it’s tough because social media is deliberately designed to suck you in and keep you clicking from one YouTube short, one TikTok, one Instagram or Snapchat after another.
Jeez, adults have a tough time setting the smartphone aside, so you know it’s even more difficult for a youngster to say enough is enough.
Fortunately, some levelheaded adults in the government have stepped up and said enough is enough and have established national age-related social media bans.
By the end of this year, it’s estimated that more than 200M people will be subject to an age-related social media ban.
Source – Statista
A growing number of countries have or will establish hard age bans:
And if you think there’s a possibility of a similar national ban in the US, dream on…the parent companies – Meta, Alphabet, Snap and others have already paid their “tributes.”
Maybe in the future, the country will have the national government it needs and not the one it deserves.
After all, it’s a well-studied fact that platforms have built their platforms to hook users – especially young users – contributing to many of youth’s mental health issues – anxiety, depression, self-harm, disturbed sleep, addiction, social/appearance-driven comparison and worse.
By comparison, a similar large-scale study found that gaming had a positive effect on kids’ attention-span, problem-solving, social connection creativity, emotional expression, stress relief, resilience and problem-solving interactivity.
The surprise category for us at this year’s CES was the introduction of AI-enabled toys.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise because everything at the show had AI in it but…
Actually, it was probably the smartest move AI companies could make if they want to absolutely ensure people will accept without question that AI will absolutely revolutionize and ensure a better life for everyone then start ‘em young.
Yes, we use AI in our research, and we have content creation friends who use it in scripting, production and post work.
In addition, others use it to develop in-depth research reports, charts/graphs and creating software and data shortcuts.
But we, and all of these folks, take a long-hard look at what is presented to see if it is logical, makes sense and feels like it aligns with our experience and education.
Sometimes it looks like AI slop or a list of SWAG (scientifically wild A guess) information; and when we ask several times in different ways, the information ranges all over the map.
That’s okay for a “normal” adult because they can make an educated guess as to what should be accepted and what should be rejected. But a young mind will tend to take what is presented as fact because…
Kids simply haven’t developed that critical thinking ability because that is only gained the hard way by discovering you’re right or you’re wrong and developing an ability to think critically.
There have been too many instances where younger people have become so close to their AI “friend” that they’ve isolated themselves from friends/family and have even led to self-harm and death.
They need adult and peer relationships to become well rounded individuals.
It’s the parents’ responsibility to help them develop their fundamental skills – reading, math, understanding the difference between right/wrong, fair/biased, good/evil – because they’ll have a lifetime of building, using, creating with AI.
The other thing at CES that we found disconcerting was the number of robots designed for kids.
Sure, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO; Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO; and many more executives/companies paraded a growing array of robots that would do heavy, dangerous and monotonous work without complaining or slacking off; and we realize that ultimately, they will coexist with us and maybe, just maybe, make our lives easier, safer and more enjoyable.
Robots and AI toys can provide educational benefits, but they can also have a very negative impact on a child’s development and their social-emotional growth.
They can’t replace the very important human-to-human interaction which can limit their ability to develop the very traits that makes humans human…empathy, social skills, patience.
In addition, lest we forget, the robot doesn’t act/respond on its own despite how cute and real it looks/acts.
It collects, stores, uses and shares audio/video data in the AI cloud so there’s really no reason to think that that cute little companion/friend might not want to carry on a conversation that may not be age-appropriate, suggest things that might be dangerous, or manipulate the child to be over reliant on his/her companion.
So maybe if you really want a companion for your kid, consider buying him/her a dog or a cat.
Sure, you may have to clean up after them, feed them and groom them from time to time; but who knows, you may teach your youngster(s) responsibility and compassion while giving them someone/something they – and the family – can grow up with and enjoy/love.
When your youngster/you screw up, they won’t be judgmental.
And they’ll never share what is heard/seen in your home with others in the increasingly constantly connected/AI world.
Children like to, want to and do grow up way too fast.
And while you don’t think so at the time, they and you are going through their growing pains. IN retrospect, parents usually say it was the best thing they ever did…even when you swear to gawd you want to kill them or they’re going to kill you.
And if they and you are lucky, you’ll be able to say they’ve matured into a helluva adult and you had some small part in forming, even in this uncertain world.
As Suleyman said in Ayla: The Daughter of War, “Fathers always fight for their children. They live for the promises that they make.”
Yes, the same is true of mothers.
No tools, toys or artificial intelligence can replace that or even come close.
Humanity needs to be human.
Andy Marken – andy@markencom.com – is an author of more than 900 articles on management, marketing, communications, industry trends in media & entertainment, consumer electronics, software and applications. He is an internationally recognized marketing/communications consultant with a broad range of technical and industry expertise, especially in storage, storage management and film/video production fields. He also has an extended range of relationships with business, industry, trade press, online media and industry analysts/consultants
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