Republican lawmakers are proposing blocking kids from accessing social media in schools that receive federal broadband subsidies.
TBH, I’m not generally opposed to this idea. Social media consumption has a lot of negative consequences, and we could all do with a little less in our lives. However, given the source, I don’t trust Republicans to be making these demands in good faith.
What’s going to be funny, though, is the number of tech-saavy kids who know how VPNs work. 🍿
The question is whether they will be blocked on school WiFi, or via software on the students’ take home laptops that some schools do. If it’s blocked on the WiFi, the tech savvy kids won’t even need a VPN to get around it. If they have a phone, they can tether it and use their phone’s internet plan instead of the school WiFi. Most android phones have this as a feature.
They all have phones. Which is how most people use social media. There is no need for any of this shit because they will just use their phones with their data plans.
Bingo. I like the idea, but it’s coming out of a Republicans mouth so there’s something insidious we’re not noticing.
Wouldn’t using DuckDuckGo bypass this?
Honestly, I’m generally okay with this. As long as they don’t push some other agenda along with it.
Social media is, generally, toxic. There are areas that are not but the algos most commercial social media outlets use for engagement are just bad for everyone.
Cutting kids off from social media is all about cutting them off from outside information and support. We desperately need a bill of rights for kids, it’s tragic how many people are fine with treating them like property.
Many abusive parents already control all of their kids’ time outside of school, and for some, the only place to find understanding & support is in forums like r/raisedbynarcissists or LGBT spaces.
Like adults, kids are informed by social media, and if we want to improve their mental health we need to actually address the problems they learn about there, instead of simply preventing them from learning about the real world.
Things like our unwavering march toward an unlivable climate, the malign growth of oppressive, theocratic, authoritarian movements in many governments around the world, the crushing inequitable grind of capitalist culture, or just the ignorant / abusive / bigoted mindset of many fellow citizens are all bad for anyone’s mental health, but they need to be understood accurately to be addressed.
Social media has legitimate research potential. This doesn’t stop any kid from doing what they’re already doing: using social media on their cell phone with cellular data.
I worry that a bill like this will have riders attached that would change scope drastically. I honestly think in this case it should be up to the school district to self regulate and let the local communities decide what is right in their districts.
Anytime a Republican does something I always believe it is for the worse intentions.
(kicks rocks) I’m gonna have to agree with the Republicans.
I guess a broken clock is right twice a day
Ultra right wingers in my kids district have banned all cellphones in schools. It’s made life hard on parents to communicate with kids.
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i actually agree; didnt think about it like that.
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This was actually the default across the country in the 90s. Anything electronic, no matter if it was a cell phone, pager, or Walkman, was banned. As an older person who hasn’t been in school for 23 years, I’m surprised that schools nowadays are so lenient with it.
Do they actually let you use the cellphones in class during instruction or assignments (in the districts that haven’t banned them)?
As an older person who hasn’t been in school for 23 years, I’m surprised that schools nowadays are so lenient with it.
Graduated over 30 years ago. Rules, on paper, were the same for me back then. However, the rules were really only enforced when the student was using the device in class or was otherwise being disruptive with it. They didn’t try to enforce it on every kid with a set of headphones on because they’d have to suspend 3/4 of the school.
My guess is that over time, the same thing happened everywhere: More kids had more and more electronic devices, and as the years went on, support for rules banning them dropped more and more to the point where at least some districts have attempted to stop trying.
At last year’s school, my kids were not allowed to use phones in class (except legitimate uses), nor to have notifications/ringers on audible, but if course the kids carried them.
This year: new school so I don’t know. However the combination of really crappy Chromebook from the school (don’t ask me how they managed to have a new Chromebook worse than the five year old one I bought previously), and more online research from more advanced classes makes phones necessary
Having access to research resources in your pocket can be a good thing for in class assignments. I haven’t been in school for 10 years, but given the right curriculum and teachers, cell phone use in classrooms can be beneficial. My history classes were less about memorizing dates and more about understanding how historical events impacted the world and led to other events, like the direct line that can be drawn between WWII, the cold War, and modern conflicts.
But you need proper oversight and instruction to ensure it’s relevant use.
S’ok with me. Kids need to pay attention in class so they don’t end up MAGA
I know my kids have legitimately used social media at school:
– for group projects, where the online classroom stuff is useless
— for current events in various social studies, history, and law and government classes
As a perfect example, my kid is taking a “virtual high school” class for something his school doesn’t normally offer. They had to use social media to coordinate a group project they just completed . Before someone says the school should provide something, in this case they couldn’t because each member school has their own distinct online classroom stuff that can’t coordinate
This seems like a rare Republican W. Social Media’s influence on people, especially young people is utterly toxic.
they only want to block social media to censor lgbtq content and help
Been trying to ban books for awhile, but just now getting to social media…?
can’t have students live blogging a school shooting while ducking for cover. That would make their benefactors look bad.
They only want to remove children from social media because they’re sick and tired of being clowned on by toddlers that are smarter than the Republicans.
What a tragedy. Internet censorship is already terrible in schools and they want to make it worse. what are they to do on there? You’ll probably have kids using their phones and personal hotspots to get around it like i did; or like i started to do later on in high school, just bring my own laptop. they might as well not even make time in the curriculum for that. What are they even allowed to do? Especially that they cant do with their own devices? I can speak from persoanl experience as a (newly) professional software engineer; that being introduced to computers at school definitely set back my technical background more than anything else ive ever done. made me even more confused about how computers work. And i was actually interested and paying attention. But what say you guys? I did go to public school after all; maybe its a lot different at private and charter schools.
Id have the opposite exprience you dod. And i grduated in computer engineering. If i didnt have access yo computers being a reletively poor family, I wouldnt have done with my major.
My influence from social media was extremely minimal due to willingly not getting a personal cellphone till I was in college.
Generally, with the more walls put up, people will either go along with the result, or become more active in learning how to bypass it. Bypassing something is coincidently a skill and id argue the average user who learns how to bypass a software block is likely more tech educated than those who arent.
So you want them on their cell phones more at school? You can’t control those geniuses.
I’m fine with teenagers having cellphones in school, largely because they will have it in college and in their careers. It’s a tool.
You’re a tool.
So sorry couldn’t help myself! I think you’re right. The point is if they have it in their pocket who are you restricting? The one poor kid who can’t afford one?
You’re also restricting the less technically savvy, and those without sufficient social skills to have friends tell them the workaround
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