Asklemmy

43796 readers

721 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Teaching children about online manipulation without creating a paranoid world view subject to manipulation? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by phase_change@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ok, this is not going to be a well formulated question, because the concerns behind it are nebulous in my own head.

Some assumptions I have, that clearly inform the question that follows: I believe commercial, state, and others have sophisticated methods of influencing what I see on social media and thus, in part, what I think. I also believe that someone more willing to believe in the types of conspiratorial beliefs I’ve just expressed are more likely to be manipulated by information they’re exposed to. And, yes, I fully appreciate the irony of those beliefs.

My child is adult enough that belief patterns I encourage are very unlikely to become deep patterns. That is, I’d have to work to indoctinate my son, and he’d actively resist if my indoctrination was outside of societal norms.

He didn’t grow up exposed to the social media I suspect children do now.

How does a parent inoculate a child to the influence of social media without also creating a mindset willing to believe in a nebulous “them” that controls things—a mindset, I believe, that makes a person more likely to be controlled?

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You cannot control what someone does or doesn't believe but you can teach ways to deal with an abundance of information and political agendas.

To teach a person to correctly look behind the curtain without falling into conspiracy is the greatest gift. My parents failed to do so because they hated discussing topics in a neutral way. They also knew nothing about philosophy or propaganda.

Same way parents can teach stoic wisdom without raising an emotionless kid. Same way we can teach morals and responsibilities without the need of any religion.

I would summarize that parents just should be parents. Kids mirror parents and being calm and focused is so important. My parents were and are always angry and this got imprinted in my subconsciousness, which sucks. (Bully target) Thankful most people grow up fast school age.

For example last weekend I talked to my cousin about some good news sites, that are as unbiased as possible. (In Germany we thankfully have independent press). I think it's important to grow up not drifting in desperation of "all news fake. Voting doesn't matter", it makes one feel helpless and thats the last thing a kid should have to endure.

Understanding how to identify wrong information, as the fake news they are, with examples and exposition is so important.

[–] Bjoern_Tantau@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I found that Minecraft is actually a pretty good teacher. There are servers (like hypixel.net) out there where kids can play different games or buy plots of lands with coins to run shops and stuff.

My kid has seen people advertising bullshit, scams, manipulation, but also genuinely good and nice people but also betrayal from people he thought to be good.

The manipulation isn't as good as in the real world. But it's good enough for discussions on how it's done in the real world.

[–] hardypart@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Interesting concept to have Minecraft as a kind of safe space to learn about idiots and necessary precautions on the internet. My kids are 3 and 4, so the age of Minecraft is right around the corner and I'm looking forward to it :)