How about educating kids on the proper use of such powerful tools, including the concepts of FLOSS (and, in general, how to question and think critically)? TV is not the problem, having more kids watching Jersey Shore rather than some good documentaries is.
It's hard, these apps are built by a huge amount of people to maximize attention hogging and addiction. Fighting addiction without going cold turkey is nearly impossible. Awareness usually doesn't help.
Further more, it is hard teaching people to think critically while their faces are stuck to their phone.
I agree that we should be educating children on healthy device usage. However, having a computer in your pocket that is connected to the internet 24/7 is an entirely different beast than any other mode of entertainment.
Re:France bans smartphone use in schools
by chriswarbo on Thursday August 02, 2018 @11:45AM
(#17672334)
> On the one hand, not having one seems like it could cause isolation
That may be true for banning individuals, who might end up excluded from activities everyone else is doing. A blanket ban would have different effects, since it's excluding everyone, who can find other activities (or ways around the ban) to do together.
You're definitely right about practical/logistical problems though.
On the one hand, not having one seems like it could cause isolation and practical/logistical problems.
On the other hand, the whole point of most of the smartphone ecosystem is to manipulate people and these people are especially prone to that.
Highschoolers therefore should be only allowed to use completely free (as in freedom) community maintained software/OS/hardware devices.