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Electronics and the way they "indocterinate" our kids...

Silent River's picture

Any parents concerned about the over use of electronics by their kids, and skids...and the way they are seemingly emersed in the crud of the world?

I had a very eye opening conversation with my SD11 about "slenderman" after hearing the story on the news about the 2 Wisconsin 12 year olds who stabbed a friend because of this fictional charactor (fortunately she lived, but the two girls are now being tried as adults).

SD11 knew all about him and many other icky internet charactors and scary stories. She has been aloud to watch very scary and un child appropriate things since she was about 3 years old. I see her innosence slipping away so fast. Very sad. No parenting and being raised by TV and electronics. I try to be a positive influence but there is not a whole lot I can do. She was telling me how her friend has an 8 year old sister with a temper. When the 8 yearold got mad at the two 11 year olds for not letting her play with them, she ran to the knife drawer!!! The older girls were in the bedroom holding the door and someone else in the house intervened.

SD11 also shared some of the stories from the creepy pasta website and they were really sick.

Does anyone care??? About these kids??? Our society is getting more warped by the minute. Very sad stuff...

Comments

justthegirlfriend13's picture

I'm very worried about it, but due to the fact that most parents, including my own BF refuses to see anyone else's side or take anyone else's advice other than his own, it isn't going to change. When my dd was growing up, she had access to the internet, but I always had a net nanny type of software on the computer so she was limited to not only the websites that she could go to, but also the times that she could access the internet. If she wanted to add any additional websites, I had to approve them. She also did not get her own cell phone until she was in her teens and then, it was only a dumb phone until she turned 16 and she got an iPhone for Christmas, but it was under the agreement that she was to have a job and pay for the data plan/ messaging. Parents nowadays just want to give kids everything and not deal with the ramifications from it. My BF not only lets his 10yr old have unlimited 24/7 access to the internet without watching what he is doing, but his 12 year old has had an iPhone for 2 years now. When all of these kids are older teens, young adults or even to the point that they are running businesses and the country, I hope I'm not around because it just sickens me.

BF gave me the silent treatment yesterday because I called him a Disney dad. lol

For anyone that watched the Miss USA pageant last night, this was also one of the questions for the girls at the end about whether social media and the increased use of electronics nowadays for kids has caused a self absorbed, entitled generation. At least the young girl in the pageant agreed!

Goincrazy40's picture

You know, I didn't know what "Creepy Pasta" was. Just checked it out. My skid went as Slenderman for Halloween two years ago. How about me and DH are clueless?????

Drac0's picture

I actually like creepy pasta but, but as with all internet forum board sites, the ratio of good posts there is horribly outweighed by the bad. The Slender man is EXTREMELY popular among the kids at my SS's school. You'll note that creepy pasta no longer accepts writing submissions on the subject of Slender Man. SS went out dressed like him last Halloween. This is the same kid who absolutely HATED horror movies when I first met him.

Do I hate the fact that he may be reading creepy stuff like that found on creepy pasta? I dunno. SS's comp teacher said "I don't care if kids these days read Manga. As long as they READ!"

However, I want to address the first point of your post about the dependency on today's youth and electronics. The University of Maryland has already done a study on this. They took 100 people between the ages of 15 and 25 and told them that for ONE WHOLE WEEK, they were not allowed using the internet, cell phones or any kind of electronic medium. The only thing they were allowed, were LAN line phones. Out of the 100 people, over half of them complained of withdrawl symptoms (headaches, anxiety, hunger pangs, sleeplessness, etc). In one case, it got so bad, a subject had to be excused from the study after a just two days. So yes, the dependency of today's youth on the electronic medium is staggering and it will only grow as faster, more efficient and smaller scale electronic devices are being made readily available.

justthegirlfriend13's picture

I agree ^^^. I used those monitoring and restriction programs with my daughter and NEVER blamed others for creating the shit.

That's just ridiculous to blame tv producers, channels, website developers, etc. for creating this garbage. It isn't their job to parent your kids, it's the PARENTS job!

Drac0's picture

But how much worse is the slender man to any other pop culture horror icons? Freddy Kruger? Jason Vorhees? Michael Myers? Norman Bates?

That's how I explained it to my SS. None of these bogeymen are real, but they hit the psyche so hard that even though we KNOW they are not real, we still fear them.

Every generation has a popular "boogey man" icon in some shape or form. I guess the slender man is this generations?

Drac0's picture

>However, they gave me nightmares like lots of kids. Nowadays? It doesn't even phase kids nowadays.<

I have a step-son who blows an atomic-explosion sized crater into that theory. His Dad let him watch Nightmare on Elm Street when he was around 6. He couldn't sleep for YEARS. Even though he is older now and loves "The Walking Dead" and a slew of other horror genres, he still will not watch the NoES movie series and absolutely hates the expression "You ready Freddy?". Slender-man OTOH? Well that's cool because it is the "in-thing". It's all the rage (especially around Halloween). It's all the buzz around the cafeteria lunch table. He does not lose sleep over the Slender Man because he's desensitized. My SS still won't go to sleep without 3 light sources in his room on.

>SS talks about going to Game Stop & giggles at Slenderman along with his goofy friends.<

Doesn't sound unusual or a reason to be concerned about the travesty of today's youth to me. Like I said, just because I have a copy of the "Anarchists Cookbook" doesn't make me a terrorist...

Drac0's picture

quote from Wikipedia:

The success of the Slender Man "legend" has been ascribed to the chaotic, ambiguous nature of the Internet. While nearly everyone involved understands on some level that the Slender Man is not real, the Internet offers up a mess of conflicting perspectives

So how do you police something when it leaves the realm of your own creativity and the internet gives it a "life" of its own?

Drac0's picture

Same thing happened with the Power Rangers a while back (if I recall the incident correctly). A couple of kids put a toddler in the hospital because they were reenacting the Power Rangers. The media went to town on this one. Is the Power Rangers too violent? Is this show appropriate for young children? Should the producers be blamed? Should the sponsers be blamed? It all boils down to exactly what you said and what we as parents teach our kids.

Silent River's picture

It's wonderful to have all these devices to monitor the kids but what about when they are at a friend's house? Trust me, with my own, I could not be there all the time and it was sooo frustrating. I used to say "I feel like I am having a tug of war with Satan and DS is the rope!"

He is grown and gone now, I gave it my best but it was always a fight.

SD11 has been watching things like Freddie Kruger, Pet Cemetary, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, etc. since she was about 3 years old. She has to sleep with the lights on when she comes to our house and says it is creepy. It is a newer home in a nice area and it is not creepy! We only get her for a night, EOW. BM has some different ideas on raising kids. DH is way too passive and Disney to step up to the plate. So discusting...SD11 has had a little computer since she was 9 and a smart phone at 10?

My son only had a track phone with no extra net options. He still has a track phone and is now 20. He doesn't care.

You can't protect them from the world as much as you want too. The get icky stuff from other kids. The kids share some bad stuff.

Drac0's picture

In my experience, if you've taught a kid right, they will be able to make the right decisions for themselves without the need of a parent to look over their shoulders.

I know it sounds like an empty platitude but there is only "so much" we can do as parents to safeguard our children from "the world". Whether it be R-rated material, drugs, violence, etc. So you teach them as best you can and give them enough trust to make the right decisions for themselves. I know with some of our skids, we cannot trust them to make the right decision all the time especially when our spouses are not on-board...

but we can still try...

Like I mentioned above, when it comes to the horror genres, SS knows I am his "go-to" guy on the subject. We've had PLENTY of discussions on the Slender Man and the pop-culture surrounding the boogey man in general. I don't mind him looking into it because I trust him enough to know that this stuff isn't real and if there is anything he finds too creepy to just put it aside.

I know this because SS said he was at a party (during his Dad's visitation) and they were watching something scary (Alien I think?). The movie unerved him so he had the presence of mind to get up and walk away. I taught him to do that.