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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Amazed that I had to scroll down this far to read this. Capitalism does not magically create a fair society through the creation of value (which seems to be what its proponents keep saying: investors generating economic activity and wealth). But similarly you could have a socialist economic system, with no real democracy. Which, as we’ve seen, devolves into a corrupt oligarchy. We’ve seemingly lost this perspective in the decades since WWII, but a solid representative parliamentary democracy and separation of powers are the best way to create and maintain a fair society. It requires some other conditions too, like good education, free press, etc. but the core is a system where power is distributed and temporary, depending on democratic processes (elections). This democratic legitimacy is what we should be defending at all costs, imho. It’s not sexy, though.




  • An irrational fear of suddenly using all of it up. Before they got their phones, we drilled it into them to be conservative in their data usage. It’s not that they complain that they have too little data, or how annoying it is that they have to leave it switched off to conserve it, they somehow are convinced that it is pointless to leave it on. We have mentioned numerous times that we’d be fine with upgrading their data plan, but they don’t want to. It’s like us in the nineties dialing into our ISP to download e-mail. Weird. Cheap. But weird.


  • I send SM’s to my kids when they’re on the go, as they religiously disable gsm data and only use wifi, which means they regularly don’t get my WhatsApp messages.

    Before they got their own smartphone I was scared that their data plans would cost me an arm and a leg, but it turns out they’re extremely stingy with their data 🤷‍♂️


  • There are degrees of monitoring. This is basically my approach:

    • no smartphone before 12yrs old
    • no computer, tablet, smartphone or similar in their bedroom before 16yrs old, specifically at night.
    • family link (android) installed, with tighter controls the younger they are. This is discussed and also explained as a measure to protect them
    • if they are under 16, we create social media accounts together and discuss what is appropriate, what can/should be public/private etc.

    That is basically it. A lot of it is being around, available and approachable. It’s not perfect, but it has several layers of protection, and is built around creating trust and teaching valuable media skills.

    If I had to pick one, I’d say the ‘no internet devices in bedrooms’ would be the most valuable one. Because of that, I know what games my kids play, they can deconnect at night, and it’s fairly easy to enforce.