…….. and I’ll begin with a neighbor who, in response to my book’s assertion that gaming and media hosts are multi-tasking your computer while it is used for your pleasure, asked: ‘Why should we worry if our kids play games allowing the service provider to use the computer for other purposes while the game is going’, (left unsaid) ‘including, but not limited to, implanting sales generating and promotional cookies, use in the production of cyber-cash aka bitcoin among other WWW.com interests, such as in a slave server to manipulate the stock market, or flood the political arena with opinion.’
In response, I’d say: it is tantamount to letting your 2 year-old drive your car.
There was a class action law suit against MacDonald’s for their use of a playground to attract the children who in turn would pester their parents to go to that restaurant. In that case the possibility of an accident swayed the legislation and the restaurant no longer has the playground feature.
The same type of loss of parental control will likely occur (and in a more perverse and subversive way) if we allow social media to present attractions which take our young into another realm and use their under developed emotive forces to hold their attention and the computer they are using in sync with the providers ulterior motives. I would think this has the potential to undermine the conservation of developmental energies at all levels. Certainly investigation into the source of the media streaming should be employed and the content appraised. but there are other more subversive psychological issues at stake – it becomes ritualistic and addictive in it’s neurotransmitter stimulation. the rewards are formidable to a young mind, and can produce unwarranted neurological and emotional disparities, let alone habits that will blossom later in life.
This is surely going to be sorely evident as ‘A I’ becomes a common source of entertainment for our youth. Close supervision and limits should be employed in the use of these handy and beneficial (if used prudently) tools for the education and upbringing of the next generations.