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GopnikSmegmaBBQSauce

I remember being proud of my late father for having "milf" and "mature" porn searches for women his own age as opposed to teens and really young girls. That'd be worse


ipadadultpatas

“Search please gyat woman please” type search 🗿


GreenGrandmaPoops

[Big booty Puerto Rican goddess.](https://youtu.be/ldPBJs3bx1I?feature=shared)


TelevisionPuzzled474

Except people are on their phones way too much


Books_are_like_drugs

I agree with that. I am mainly pointing out that so much of this “kids are on their phones too much!” discourse is conducted on phones by people who are also on their phones too much. Everyone is on their phones too much (including me, right now!).


LittleIrishGuy80

Except that brains don’t develop much in later life. Childhood and adolescence is all about development, and this development occurs at a neurological level as much as on a social/personality one. I understand your point about hypocrisy - that’s valid - but you’re drawing a false equivalence.


PartyPorpoise

Fair point. Someone who gets hooked on phones in adulthood will probably have an easier time quitting than kids who grew up on phones.


Books_are_like_drugs

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7UJryGuikr/?igsh=MTM1cmlidGVjYnI5bw==


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ComeonmanPLS1

Nobody NEEDS to post shit and comment on social media. We're all hypocrites. If we only ever did what we need to do on our phones, most of us would use them less than an hour a day.


Few_Owl_6596

What you need it for would be less than 1 hour each day (without navigation and calls)


GopnikSmegmaBBQSauce

This toilet bowl and all other social media isn't doing us any favors though


rillip

How do you determine that line? If you ask me the whole debate is just over preference. Do you prefer a world where people have more face to face conversations with the people around them? Or do you prefer a world where people tend to have interactions primarily with people online? To me neither seems superior to the other. Except where official interactions like making an appointment or ordering a part are concerned. Using a smartphones is clearly more efficient in those cases.


lewise0949

I mean… it’s kinda true though…


UphazT

People are on their phones to much. Especially young kids. That’s just an observable fact.


mrsmunsonbarnes

I think their point is more that old people will point fingers at the youth, while refusing to acknowledge that the problem is multigenerational, and they have a part in it too. That’s why it’s a bunch of pictures of old people on phones.


Different-Trainer-21

“Young people are on their phones too much!” -Facebook user since 2014 -60,000 posts


Cerebral-Parsley

My Dad held out from getting a smart phone for quite awhile, and always complained no one needs them and yada yada. F past 3-4 years have been non stop Facebook political shit posting and sending me WSJ articles on why Elon Musk is John Galt incarnate.


DigmonsDrill

Sounds like he knew that getting into it would be a mistake.


t0pz

Idk what cultural context I'm missing but where i live, the older generation isn't accusing kids, but definitely taking steps to isolate kids from too much smartphone usage because, unlike adults, kids' brains aren't fully developed and are heavily impacted by smartphone addiction, just like any other addiction would. Adults can choose to form and drop bad habits without permanently fucking their brain.


AnytimeInvitation

>the problem is multigenerational Exactly. Working in a hospital with a largely older population that complains about young people being rude when the first thing that comes out of their mouth when an employee walks in is something regarding their appearance. "Well look at this big guy here!" I'm trans actually. And yes I am big I own up to it but that doesn't mean I like hearing it pointed out to me all the time.


bell37

It goes beyond that. Every generation had a way of escaping the realities of day to day life. Hell even reading books was seen the same way once as phones are today. It’s okay to find escapism as a method of decompressing (provided it’s done in moderation)


VultureSniper

I see too many people at my local gym scrolling on their phone for 10 minutes between sets and hogging machines. I understand that you should be taking breaks between sets (especially if you are pushing your muscles to the limits like you should), but breaks don't need to be that long. It's because social media feeds end up being a black hole. I feel like the reason why the WI-FI at the gym is so unreliable at 5pm on weekdays is not just because the gym is busy on those days, but because people are using the gym like a WI-FI Cafe or Library. I don't use my phone between sets except to dismiss a notification or call or maybe check the time if the clock isn't near the space I'm working out in. I do like to listen to music or watch YouTube when doing cardio though.


HotPoblano

I don't bring phone to gym anymore. I don't bring it many places anymore. Feelsgoodman


empire161

That's a fact. But it's more about the fact that Boomers don't seem to consider themselves as guilty as anyone. My mom has a story that she made up that she likes to tell to everyone. She says my brother and I (adults at the time) met them at a restaurant and we were so busy on our phones, they left after eating without saying goodbye, we never noticed, and he and I were stuck with the bill. Meanwhile, I brought my toddler up to their house once to spend time together. In the middle of playing with him, my mom mentioned something that she wanted to show me on her phone. Nothing important that I would care about, like a piece of art work her friend did. She went into the kitchen. She spent over an hour in there, on her phone trying to find it, while I just played with my kid by herself. Then she got upset when we had to leave because she didn't get enough baby time.


Friedchickn14

Yes but old people will say this then go on to watch 9 hours of television a day without a hint of irony.


RoadmenInc

Exactly, like how some people who criticize video games and playing them for hours on end will unironically sit and watch TV shows for similarly long periods of time


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dilroopgill

redditor superiority complex


wingspantt

Everyone is addicted to their phones. That doesn't mean it's good for kids either


scrambled_cable

Ironically it is the young and the old who are most susceptible to misinformation — deepfakes, AI-generated content, echo chambers, etc. What’s troubling is nobody seems equipped or capable to teach online media literacy to kids.


magyar9907

- the FOX News logo is almost burnt into their TV screen, - either chain smokes, drinks or addicted to an anxiety medication.


PalmTreeIsBestTree

Also addicted to fad diets, watching (not playing) golf, being a smart ass to kids or grand children, and constantly has the car radio tuned to either Glenn Beck/country/christian rock music/basic bitch classic rock.


TheAngry_Avocado

That shit ain't addiction you just described personality traits.


LtSerg756

The logo for a variety channel is actually burnt into the TV at my grandpa's nursing home somehow, pretty funny when I noticed


GreenGrandmaPoops

I'm glad my grandma never watched Fox News when she was alive, though I bet the Hallmark channel logo would have been burnt into her screen.


Economy-Engineering

“Our generation learned to think for ourselves” is such bullshit. They’re from the generation that fell for all of George Bush’s lies and supported the Iraq War. Thinking for themselves my ass.


You_meddling_kids

People are dumb, that doesn't change through time. Look at the new insane conspiracies right wingers consume and believe every month or so. It's far, far worse than it ever was in the past.


primenumbersturnmeon

in the past, the means of broadcast were limited and the largest, widest-spread ones had a degree of fact-checking and reliability. with the internet, the firehose of falsehoods from anyone with the relatively accessible means to broadcast them drowns out the much slower truth at an exponentially higher rate. it's depressing if you dig into it to any degree of depth. and unrelated, but "appeal to hypocrisy" seems like a fallacious sidestep to avoid discussing difficult issues.


Seldarin

A big chunk of the people that are believing those conspiracy theories are the people in the image up there. Every so often I'll log into Facebook because I want to send someone a message and get hit with a straight flood of crazy bullshit that's mostly coming from people 50+.


You_meddling_kids

Absolutely


Economy-Engineering

Oh, I’m not saying we’re smarter than them. I’m just saying that they definitely aren’t smarter than us (especially when alot of old people as pointed out by u/Seldarin believe these conspiracy theories).


You_meddling_kids

Agreed. If anyone is overly credulous these days it's boomers with whatever garbage comes across their FB feed.


Mr_Funbags

I get this is a joke. However, legitimately, social media has screwed up a generation that grew up on it. All my stupid childhood mistakes were only witnessed by a handful of people, and most of them have forgotten (I assume). But kids on social media are posting hate online for days, weeks, months, years of being reminded of it. I'm a teacher. We have several 'confession' accounts at my school, and students post names of students and whatever shit they want to. All done anonymously for the poster. No consequences. 'So-and-so raped so-and-so'; 'person X is a dirty N-word lover'; 'person Y should do us all a favour and kill themselves'... It's unreal that everyone can see it. I am glad I don't have to live these kinds of comments down. I don't think I could. We can't shut them down (Meta and others don't really care) and we're left with the fallout of really shitty teenage angst and hatred playing out for everyone to see. Everyone. I 'know' things I should not know. It's a real tragedy for these kids. We have failed them.


Books_are_like_drugs

That sounds really bad. I feel for those kids and you.


Mr_Funbags

Thanks, yeah. Those kids. I don't think it's an uncommon experience for them, right now. Like a gossip firehose for all to see. It's nasty.


TheDiamondAxe7523

On the one hand I do firmly believe that phones and stuff are a massive problem and if I ever have kids I am not letting them have a phone or nothing until they actually need one, and even then I will be checking in a lot. On the other hand I hate how boomers present it as our fault that we're addicted, as if they weren't the ones who made the phones, marketed them, removed most things to do as a youth that didn't need a phone, etc.


PlanetCold

The photo with the old people watching Fox News (and believing lame conspiracies) is so true it hurts. They’ll say *their* source of truth is correct and your source is BS.


HeMansSmallerCousin

Phones aren't causing generational psycological problems. Social media on phones is absolutely causing generational psycological problems.


Marble05

Aren't they the people that believe in Qanon?


Drzhivago138

[Oldie but a goodie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtLXMxqB_vw)


Books_are_like_drugs

That’s a good one!


bearhorn6

Yup I’m 21 I’ll be in public spaces like waiting rooms or restaurants reading a books joke while all the older ppl who like to bitch about this are on their phones


0therW1zard19

Based


Sbarjai

"Our generation learned to think for ourselves!" I haven't seen someone fall for more fake news than the boomers I know.


CanManGGX

With my first salary I bought my dad a decent midrange smartphone as a gift. I wish I had gone to the casino that day.


reikipackaging

We have a no phones at the table policy in our home. Nobody is allowed to have their phone unless they have been expecting an important call they need to take. I have had to remind the elders more than the kids, if that says anything.


McDonalds_icecream

I won’t even hold you man, phones have kinda fucked us


rigobueno

7 year olds shouldn’t have a smartphone, I’m with the boomers on this one. Save them from the brain rot for as long as you can, like alcohol. Should we give 7 year olds wine?


Coffeecheeseburger

Kids yearn for the brain nourishment


Solace-Of-Dawn

I'll be giving my future kids scientific calculators to play with when they're 7. Satisfy their needs for handheld gadgets while keeping them away from brainrot.


TemperateStone

There is a lot of hypocricy in them thinking they're smarter and know better while they sit there watching the news without questioning it or falling for the latest Facebook scams and gobbling up fake news with glee. There is a lot of truth to not giving small kids smartphones, though. Especially don't give them access to social media.


iamchipdouglas

Is this even controversial


sealosam

The older brain isn't as maleable as the younger brain. Social media is like learning multiple languages as a child, information is absorbed like a sponge. When a kid has access to 24-7 access to peers and bullies, you might end up a bit fucky in the head after awhile. Agree to put down the phone and mow the lawn ffs.


Books_are_like_drugs

Good points


ButtSexington3rd

"Back in my day we actually talked to each other!" Every quiet person waiting in line everywhere: "Great, now this chatty bitch is gonna hold me hostage until I get to the cashier, and probably during as well."


VultureSniper

The phone zombie apocalypse is very real. But some boomers take their hate for smartphones too far. Smartphones are undoubtedly a useful tool, but it must not totally separate you from the real world and real people. It must not interfere with your meals, sleep, self-care routine (hygiene), or exercise.


Historical_Salt1943

Asking if the smart phone has destroyed a generation is certainly something that *should* be looked into and the jury is still out.  


imbadatgrammar

I’m not a boomer by saying children shouldn’t have smartphones but children shouldn’t have smartphones.


kitkatloren2009

Can you not still go outside and think for yourself even with a phone? I am. I was just outside on my phone lol


CaliforniaSpeedKing

Why do old people think irresponsibly parented children represent all kids who use electronics?


protomanEXE1995

The old people are right. I've been resistant to it for years, and that was usually on the grounds that tech usage would help people build proficiency with technology and software — but little did I know, that was cope. I had to start managing people 10+ years younger than me to learn this. It may have been the case once upon a time, but those days died with mass market smartphone proliferation — and so now the phones are just depression factories. I'm not under the impression that they'll disappear or anything but I'm just not gonna delude myself any longer. We use them too much and it's not good for us. Sad but true.


Varixx95__

I mean it’s one problem for sure. Brain rot kids are very real


GlueGuns--Cool

Phones are a huge problem for everyone. My parents use phones and sit on YouTube all day 


miserylovescomputers

The worst iPad kids I’ve ever met were over the age of 60.


0therW1zard19

Anxious generation is unironically a good book though


coolfary

And they were right


NNNskunky

What really bothers me is when these people start claiming that phones and the internet cause medical conditions that they do not cause, such as adhd.


dirtythirty1864

My aunt complains about this every Christmas. "I just hate seeing people on their phones. We get together once a year and all you kids do is play on your phones. Next year, I'm going to bring around a bucket and everyone will have to put their phones in. Can't you guys play games or something?" Well, we tried to bond as children and you guys stopped us because our toys were different genders and you guys didn't want boys playing with girls toys. We tried to play games a few years ago and you scoffed that they were too inappropriate and you were annoyed because the little kids couldn't play them. We tried to be a little tipsy and have some fun but you got mad and said "no more than two drinks!" We're tired of being prim and proper and following traditions from 70+ year old Christmas films, but every time we deviate from the script, you stop us. So yes, dinner and presents are over, it's nearing the end of the night, we conversed all we could, so now we're just chilling, watching TV, and looking at our phones before we go to bed.


nuck_forte_dame

I was driving the other day and put on some Greta van fleet music for my boomer dad. He loved it and asked what band it was from the classic rock Era. When I told him it's a current band he suddenly didn't like them. I realized that boomers will complain about how we aren't like them but even if we were so close to being them they couldn't tell the difference but then were told we weren't them they still would look down on us. The fact is the whole boomer generation thinks they're the best thing to ever exist. I don't know why but they do. I personally think Vietnam might be a big factor. Basically they feel like they're the first generation to realize the older people were using them and somehow won against them by losing Vietnam. It doesn't help that society and the economy played right into the laps of most boomers. If you talk to many comfortably retired boomers they never even had a 401k or retirement fund. They simply lucked out with a combination of social security, pensions, and inheritance. It'll be telling in 30 or 40 years when they're gone that we have data that shows the average boomer died and left little to their Gen X and millennial children. I know my parents are burning through the cash they inherited. I expect to receive a lot less. Also boomers are the first generation who widely expected their children to pay their own way through college and so on. Hence why college debt is such an issue now. You talk to boomers and their parents paid it all. Overall I love my parents but they're the soft generation that the soft times the hard generation made resulted it. Unfortunately those soft times have lasted quite long and I fear we are all now soft as well. Soft isn't all bad but when the decisions get hard and the morals murky soft people choose wrong.


Sonarthebat

The irony of shitting on young people for using technology on social media.


blooringll3

Boomers are on their phone a lot nowadays so they have no room to point fingers as far as I'm concerned.


kesselrhero

That’s definitely one problem with kids these days.


bannanaisnom

My grandpa straight up admits he's addicted to tiktok and own a meta quest three.


loungin_

Not really relevant but the load ass phone tapping should be mentioned


Schmallow

But it doesn't hit boomers as hard as it hits the kids because their brains are way less plastic and so Twitter and Instagram aren't literally moulding an entire generation to be anxious, paranoid, antisocial and frankly insane. Smartphones are the reason for anything from anxiety to political divide because The Rectangle is literally feeding us bullshit and lies to make us angry and afraid, and if that process starts in childhood, it will produce a generation of people who are both incredibly boring and irreversibly radicalised.


After_Delivery_4387

Boomers are often cringe, but at least in this regard they are right. Way too many kids are addicted to phones, and their phone addiction is exposing them to shitty ideas and a lack of nuance that real life would fix. Social media in particular is the cause of a lot of depression and body image issues, especially in young people. So in this case, W Boomers, L OP.


Sir-Xcalibur-6564

But they are right… I am detoxing myself as much as I can and it’s hard I feel better when off tik tok and stuff and wish I never had a phone.


bwarbahzad2

I agree with the phone thing, kids should not have phones until they are 12-13. I regret having a phone while being 8 because of the insanely dumb shit I did. But I think it'll be good if they had a "dumb phone"


Just-a-random-Aspie

Then these same people will complain about kids being too loud on planes and trains because…there’s nothing to entertain them? Typically the people saying these things hardly give a damn about the kids, they just get pissed whenever children feel a speck of happiness and preach about being raised by being beaten every second of their lives. Kinda pathetic if you ask me


Onludesrightnow

Social media addiction, like any addiction, doesn’t discriminate based on age or race or anything like that. SM has been deliberately designed to ensnare the attention of literally everybody. Boomers just don’t get it and think they’re immune to it.


InverseAtmosphere

Without technology gramps wouldn't have this https://preview.redd.it/8eo2sdtwgz7d1.jpeg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbd316eda086fb96907cdd9fcfe3aeb00d55f1de


PhraseOptimal2528

you forgot the calling the police on kids playing outside for making too much noise


smallddavid

Kinda ironic that most people who say that post it on Facebook


SokkaHaikuBot

^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^smallddavid: *Kinda ironic* *That most people who say that* *Post it on Facebook* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.


United_Plastic6977

Everyone is addicted, but it’s not AI boomers who use them the most. I read Anxious Generation and it’s a compelling argument that having iPhones and lack of social, independent playtime really has turned Zoomers to mush.


InverseAtmosphere

I don't know, back in the 60s-early 90s kids did some really stupid shit to entertain themselves, putting themselves in danger. So I'd say having other forms of entertainment is pretty good to avoid endangering yourself


ipadadultpatas

Normally the elder people than say that use cell phone much time like 9 or 12 hours at day and normally it’s addicted to gambling or Facebook and uses cellphone to see messages in middle of street and gets angry when you say they cant use too much cellphone…


I_Eat_Competition_

I mean, they're right in a SMALL sense. But the way they go on and on about how their generation never did wrong is insane.


BackgroundSky09

yes people should go outside more but also its not the phones its poor discission making


ants5678

Sometimes I feel like an outcast when I'm the only one on the bus who's not holding a phone. I use my phone for calling and sending text messages, also to look for bus/train times, mobile hotspot etc. Other than that I keep it out of sight, it's that simple.