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Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by jellyfishbeaver on Saturday October 25, 2025 @12:53PM (#45705298)
My dad used to tie up the Ethernet cable on our family's home router and hide it in a closet. The knots were to prevent us from reconnecting the router and putting it back before he got back home. He'd be able to tell if we tried since he was the only one able to tie that special knot :)

All to prevent my siblings and I from wasting our summers on Runescape or Miniclip or something. Looking back, the hours we were playing each day is nothing compared to the hours he spends scrolling through crap these days. My dad worked in such an intellectually stimulating job before, so it's baffling to see that he chooses to do this all day. I imagine most older parents are in the same boat these days. It has made me hate social media, YouTube, short videos, et al. even more

Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by dustbunny on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:40PM (#45705633)
Maybe the intellectually stimulating job made him more predisposed to needing the constant dopamine drip of the screen.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by jayd16 on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:57PM (#45705750)
I guess a trip to RadioShack for a cable of your own was out of the question, eh?
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by steine65 on Saturday October 25, 2025 @08:27PM (#45708046)
And get caught with a new cable instead? No thanks. My father used similar methods of limiting tech time.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by ivape on Saturday October 25, 2025 @02:44PM (#45706061)
Addiction can happen to anyone, at any time, with anything.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by calmworm on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:17PM (#45705449)
This special knot prevented the cable from transmitting a signal?
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by MichaelDickens on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:29PM (#45705548)
I'm not OP but presumably the knot made it so that the cable wasn't long enough to reach the computer.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by jellyfishbeaver on Saturday October 25, 2025 @02:10PM (#45705844)
Yep, exactly. You couldn't reach the computer unless you undid the knot.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by Sammi on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:37PM (#45705614)
> and hide it in a closet
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by exe34 on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:23PM (#45705499)
it's like a seal to show that they had disobeyed.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by unfunco on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:29PM (#45705553)
It makes it shorter.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by analog31 on Saturday October 25, 2025 @01:37PM (#45705611)
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by xnx on Sunday October 26, 2025 @09:00PM (#45716372)
We need a new generation of "Parental Controls", not for parents controlling what their kids can do, but adults controlling what their parents can do.
Re:Meet the real screen addicts: the elderly by dumbasrocks on Monday October 27, 2025 @07:50AM (#45719905)
Same router story but my dad still spends his time reading books all day. I think the barrier of unfamiliarity with social media (and perhaps the disgust of an untailored algorithm) is just high enough that he will never