My parents were always good with tech, we always had the latest PC at home. As they now enter their 80s their patience / resilience has evaporated to nothing. If it doesn’t work immediately the get stressed and give up (or ask me).
I’m not sure as developers how you get round that.
As a parent I agree parental reponsiblity is absolute but I haven't seen a workable solution reguarding social media.
I can't realistically monitor what my children are looking 24/7, like I can't listen to every conversation that they have.
I could ban all social media / phones but how is that going to prepare them for life in a world where social media is all encompassing? Plus they likely would be ostracized by their peers.
[I'm talking here about older children, teenagers. We also have a 5 year old and it's pretty easy with him, he doesn't have access to any form of social media.]
> I could ban all social media / phones but how is that going to prepare them for life in a world where social media is all encompassing?
This is not the future that I expect. Rather, in my observation/bubble, "radical privacy advocates" are more and more spreading. So, I would expect that you rather prepare the children for a wrong (and worse) world.
> Plus they likely would be ostracized by their peers.
In my school time, the "nerds" (who were also privacy advocates, keywords: Diffie-Hellman key exchange, RSA, war against cryptography) found friends among each others. So, I wouldn't fear that your child becomes ostracized - it very likely will find (better) friends.
I don't disagree with anything you say but try telling my 16 year old daughter she need to jettison any form of social media and go with the nerd crowd.
> I don't disagree with anything you say but try telling my 16 year old daughter she need to jettison any form of social media and go with the nerd crowd.
There exist quite some other groups of people who reject social media: I just chose the "nerd crowd" example because many HN readers are very familiar with it. For example
- people who are somewhat skeptical about technology
- people who are "anti establishment"/"anti big tech")
- ...
I can easily imagine that if "(mostly) everybody" uses social media, a pubescent girl might easily come to the decision to reject social media completely just to be annoying to other people, and tell them to f... off.
I was lucky to be given/earnt some money before I was 21. Basically enough at the time to buy a mid range new car. I invested it into an Index Fund and didn't spend any of it, even when later I'd had 4 kids and times were tougher. 25 years later it has quadrupled in size and by the time I retire I am hopeful it will fund my entire retirement.
Appricate the power you have in your youth.
"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world."
It's just crazy to me that water (water!) was privatised. How do you look at something so basic and essential and think that what it needs is a layer of people added who are trying to extract as much profit from it as possible? I mean, the answer is obvious, but it's so depressing that it just happened without the streets being filled with people protesting.
"Consumers in England are paying £2.3bn more a year for their water and sewerage bills under the current privatised system than if the utility companies had remained in state ownership, according to research by the University of Greenwich."
It just seems so obvious to me that for basic necessities, you don't want them owned by people trying to get away with doing the bare minimum, charging the most they can get away with and weaselling their way out of repairing, maintaining and improving the system.
UK TV comedian Bob Monkhouse was another obsessive VHS archivist. He amassed a collection of 35k tapes and saved some recordings of UK TV shows which were previously thought to have been lost by the BBC.
There was a BBC Four documentary about his archive. I think in that it reported that he was one of the first people in the UK to own a VHS device with the facility to record.
> Work on a passion project, even just 30 minutes a day. It compounds.
I need to do this. I know my project (just a passion, not a side hussle or for income). Tell myself I need to. Then daily life gets in the way. 10 years or more.
My mom had me very young and my grandparents had my parents young so I got to spend quality time with my great grandparents and my grandparents are still alive in their 70s while I'm 33. It's a huge blessing. My mom is 49 and my dad is 51. I hope I have many more years with them all
I’m not sure as developers how you get round that.