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harpercollins

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Posts posted by harpercollins

  1. 1 hour ago, Mullet Free said:

    I hear you, but how beneficial is it to have your kids socially isolated from all their peers at your repeated, dogged insistence?

    If you have kids Harper, I applaud your goal of a isolated, spartan existence for them. They'll probably turn out great. I imagine as soon as they're out of the house they'll get social media accounts and smartphones all the same. They might even become obsessed and go crazy, like old school sheltered kids that get out and just start drinking and fucking like crazy.

    This is a really good example of an absurdly false dilemma. The only two options available are smartphones with social media at 12 or complete social isolation? 

     

    1 hour ago, Mullet Free said:

    Also, would any of those people say playing video games is beneficial for their brains? Probably not, but we all did that in the 80s and 90s and they still do it today.

    No, not remotely to the same extent. That's one of the theories about why girls are especially damaged by the smartphone age. Girls have higher participation rates in social media (which I would liken to poison for a developing brain), and boys have higher participation rates in video games (less harmful). 

    This is kind of the point of my original post. In my experience, parents who permit young children on social media are victims of some pretty serious cognitive distortions about the benefits and detriments that decision brings. I'm sorry that I posted my little rant on a good thread about your very upsetting situation. It was not intended to be pointed. You're a good parent obviously well-connected with your daughter and her relationships, and I did not intend to insinuate anything otherwise. 

  2. Balance in everything.
    Electronics and social media are not inherently bad.  Hell,  teachers/ coaches/ etc shouldn’t be hurting our fucking kids either. 
     

    I’d really like to know one teacher, principal, practicing physician, or therapist who thinks social media use is beneficial for a middle schooler’s developing brain.

    Some weaker-willed may allow it, but I don’t know anyone in those categories who thinks it’s beneficial. Truly, this is as close to a consensus in these circles as could possibly exist.
  3. So...age 12 is not old enough?
    Seems pretty damned reasonable to me.
    Could just move to a log cabin and never talk to anyone.  That'd be normal and safe.


    No. 12 is not nearly old enough.

    It’s not about sheltering your kids from the real world. It’s about allowing them to live in the real world and not a virtual one.

    Take a close look at what CTOs and CIOs are doing with their own children.

    (It was a tangential rant, and I’m not calling out OP for the situation he’s in. It’s not the smartphone’s fault. Ease of access is definitely a factor though.)
    • Like 1
  4. tangentially related rant

    I just want to know when people are going to wake up and stop giving little kids smartphones and social media.

    Look at the research. Your kid (especially your daughters) is not some special super kid immune to these very real, very present dangers. The cognitive bias at play in that decision is beyond disturbing.

    • Hook 'Em 3
  5. I’m an employer wanting to transition one of my best employees from part-time to full-time. He is profoundly disabled (I suspect cerebral palsy though he’s never actually said).

     

    How can I do this without bankrupting him? He’s in a special class where he cannot make more than $24k annually nor can he ever have more than $2k in assets at any time. He has Medicaid, disability benefits, and home health.

     

    He is maybe 35 and lives with his grandmom who is 90 and likely not long for this world.

     

    I’m thinking some type of trust is in order? I feel kind of shocked that his grandparents don’t seem to have discussed this very much.

    • Like 3
  6. It was some verse that made a reference to a slave serving his master.  If there are any religious folks on Surly (LOL) they might know which one.

    Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 are the most famous ones, absolutely nothing to do with race-based chattel slavery but that didn’t stop slaveowners from co-opting it.

    Absolutely no idea how it would apply in a basketball motivational speech.

    Edit: Colossians 3:23 commands the reader, “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the lord as a reward.” so maybe some type of “don’t do it for me, do it for the hardware” type of speech? Stupid and a big stretch if so.
    • Hook 'Em 3
  7. Odds are the widow received a mailed notice that she was “changing” providers but she probably didn’t understand or she ignored it. 

    Maybe so. I checked her email where she gets her bills (and it automatically forwards a copy to her POA) but her mail is in a giant stack on her counter that’s only processed monthly or so.
  8. I have a widow from church staying with us due to a power outage in her apartment. We went by her place this morning, and her next door neighbor had power but she did not, so I knew something was up. After I spent three hours on the phone with Oncor and the retail provider, I figured out that her service was accidentally terminated when a new neighbor entered the wrong building number while establishing service and then corrected it.

    I feel so irritated at the company for shutting off her power without any kind of verification. How does that happen? Should I ask for some type of bill credit to make it right for her?

    She just assumed it was because of the storm and hadn’t even reported the outage.

    • Like 1
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