Why stop there? Shut it all down. Pull the plug.

Too many smash burgers not enough veggies?

My advice: make sure he has other interests and socializes.

I was obsessed with coding from age 7, and now wish I had spent that time otherwise, more being a “normal” kid and less time sitting alone giving orders to a damned computer. Once I reached my mid-twenties the joy died in the realities of the job market, and now I can’t even think about that crap anymore.

You know what I enjoy now? Playing a guitar. Didn’t start until age 30, and it was like a revelation.

Sorry I didn’t answer your question. I still think any parent who wants to “get their child started” on something early should heed my advice and experience. I am for real a walking, talking (sometimes) warning.

I’m taking note of all the prominent individuals and organizations which chose to remain on the fascist platform and thus implicitly support it.

Just another stable genius

I think it’s hilarious that people are still using DOS in 2024!

Sim City 2k was the first time I used Windows 95. One of the teachers in my sixth grade class had it on their computer, and they let us take turns playing it. It seemed really amazing to those of us who grew up with more primitive computers, like Apple IIs, even Macs, various x86 clones running DOS, or occasionally Windows 3.1.

My first PC in 1998 even had Sim City 2k “Network Edition” pre-installed. Played the shit outta that game!

That was quite the pivot

It’s OK to be “disconnected.”

Especially if “connected” implies dependency on one corporation which has shown general disregard for its customers’ privacy and mental health.

I don’t use Whatsapp, FB, Instagram, snapchat, google, and somehow manage to make my way through the world.

Believe it or not plenty of people still interact in meatspace, limited as it is.

Introducing Google Pay-I.

Revolutionary AI learns from your habits and personality to make payments on your behalf! It will buy things you didn’t even know you needed!

Haha I’m driving my 13-year-old car like, what you all don’t have buttons?!

Oh yes, my phone is nearly impossible to use as a camera, between the inherently awkward shape, the case, and the long processing delay. Does it work? Yes. But it’s not much fun. I love the ergonomic grip(s) of my DSLR and how every button and dial is in a natural position.

That’s another thing we miss, plain old tactile feedback of buttons, dials, sliders, switches.

Not as strange or pointless as it might seem at first glance, I’m reminded of this article from years ago comparing the experience of a modern phone with the old handsets: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/why-people-hate-making-phone-calls/401114/

What does Gen Z suffer from even more than the rest of us? Loneliness, isolation. So using a phone that is designed with physical comfort foremost is a way of reclaiming a sense of social connection and physical touch (“reach out and touch someone”), even when distances between callers are great. And touching the cord, again, a way of feeling the connection with the other person, which in a world of wireless devices isn’t possible – there’s nothing there but empty space. It’s not just about twirling the cord.

This isn’t to suggest there are no benefits to smartphones, and others here suggest earbuds to improve call quality and ergonomics. But the fact is modern smartphones are designed to do many things OK-ish in compromise, but nothing so well as the other devices they replace (phones, TVs, calculators - remember those?, flashlights, keyboards, etc etc.)

Well, it doesn’t take long before a child needs to use a multi-occupant bathroom… so which do you suggest the child in the story to use? Or they participate in some other gender-segregated activity, like sports. A choice has to be made.

Little Bobby says he is a boy, but the school won’t let him in the boy’s bathroom. Little Alice says she’s a girl, but she isn’t allowed to join the girl’s soccer team.

You see it’s not really possible to grow naturally when half of US states try to dictate which bathroom a child uses based on psuedoscience and definitions that erase gender completely.

But yes, of course, unrelated to the story there are many mistakes a parent could make. Honestly though if I have a child, and the state decides to bully my child for political-religious agendas, yeah that’s a hill I’m going to die on

Oh hey, I have also met many cisgender folks like yourself. And yes, you have literally no reason to think about gender, because it aligns with your body, your hormones, and your life experience. It “just fits”. If you can imagine, that sensation is exactly how it feels for me to be transitioning now – a welcome change from despair :)

Good question, I’ll link my comment to someone else asking the same thing: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/6550308

full disclosure: I’m trans - my story at the end.

It doesn’t really work that way… if she was told “you’re trans” and wasn’t, she would experience the opposite type of gender dysphoria over time and would want to express masculine/boy identity in line with her birth gender and physical traits.

She’s young enough that it’s not infeasible she might change her mind. Ideally she has been to a licensed therapist and/or psychologist who verified she met the latest DSM diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria (the only successful treatment for which involves transition), and they are helping the parent manage this process. They’ll be in no hurry for medical intervention since puberty would be 4-5 years away most likely.

That being said, if you meet enough trans people, it’s not uncommon to hear stories about “knowing since I was 4”. Oftentimes it’s accompanied by a regret that their feelings were suppressed and they had to go through the torments of puberty “in the wrong body” as it were.

My own story is different. I didn’t “know” until my thirties, even if I can see signs going back to childhood in retrospect. Apparently at three years old I told my mom “I’m a butterfly and I’m going to be a girl”. She never told me that, I found out after she died last year, looking through her old notes. She assumed I meant reincarnation. Ironic considering I have adopted a butterfly metaphor to express my transition to a woman.

Anyway, yes, an eight year old can absolutely tell adults they are a different gender than they were assigned at birth. Whether they literally say “I’m trans” is kinda beside the point.

It’s the immigrants

Finally! The day I’ve been waiting for so long. Goodbye Linux, hello Windows!

- nobody ever

Terrorism is something minorities and foreigners do, likely as part of a Marxist Plot™. Everyone knows a white man on a killing spree is a lone wolf.

Elon says preferred names and pronouns are dumb.

Thus I will only refer to twttr by twttr’s original name.