Would you confirm that social media ruins children's willingness to learn?

I personally take this view.

When I think back to my childhood, I was born in 2001, there was actually never really modern technology until I was 10. A computer was there so Grandpa could do his office stuff; a huge tube device that always hummed terribly loud. Nobody had cell phones. The only distraction was an old Sony CRT TV.

So I grew up completely without any modern technology, so I spent a lot of time with the three neighbors. In summer we always played outside and in winter we read a lot. I read everything I knew about dinosaurs from the neighbors' library together. The neighbors' parents were both teachers and every time you wanted to know something, you got a book in your hand. And we were pretty curious.

We were hungry for knowledge and the books were, so to speak, our food that we devoured. We leafed through atlases and lexicons, non-fiction books, etc. "What is what" - books were very popular with us. Every time a new copy of the series was available in the school library, we took it with us and then passed it around until everyone had read it and everyone was always very fascinated by the respective topic and was of the opinion that the current topic was the The most fascinating thing is what there can be. Until the next copy appeared…

With my little brother, who is a few years younger than me, the technology was more advanced. He grew up with laptops and smartphones and had his first cell phone in elementary school.

With my brother and with people his age in general, I notice that knowledge is no longer perceived as something beautiful that one is eager for, but rather as something annoying. They don't even know what they don't know because they don't even want to know what they could know! Social media has partially dulled them to such an extent that there's no longer any curiosity at all. Which influencer has how many subscribers, who has the most expensive clothes, etc. For example, my brother only watches videos about expensive clothes all day long. In addition, none of the role models have much in the pear. Take a look at the rappers and influencers. Who was a Caesar or a Mozart is no longer of any interest because it is completely irrelevant to their lives. Education is for Luschen, is the tenor. Education is for narrow-minded Almans.

So I take the view that social media ruins children's curiosity and willingness to learn.

I'm very curious what you think about it.

2001 - 2011 no modern technology? Then you don't want to have lived in GDR times.

Not only that. Generally also games like roblox etc. You have to keep an eye on things and regulate them

Compared to today, of course. Of course, every technology was modern at the time it was invented and tube devices were also modern back then, but from today's perspective they are no longer.

I think social media is only part of the puzzle.

A Jim Rohn once said: "You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with". This also applies to these 5 people, so that their influencers indirectly rub off on you.

I'm a good 10 years older than you and as far as I can remember, unfortunately, I never had your thirst for knowledge. There was only limited TV and video games, and I only played outside with permission and with other children.

You write that you played with the 3 children in the neighborhood and their parents were teachers. I guess that thanks to their parents they got a positive view of intelligent people and how their parents became inquisitive (who if not teachers) and rubbed off on you too. People who are intelligent and you like, with whom you spend a lot of time. If then the other 2 or maybe more people in your life ticked similarly or at least didn't think opposite, then you probably couldn't help but become who you became.

Social media is easy to access and offers a wide variety of easy entertainment from many influencers. (Private) television is not exactly covered in fame and already existed before we were born and when I see all the colorful gossip papers in the supermarket that take up the same space as all the other magazines together, then I think that this medium also does not just has a monopoly on intelligence development.

The more space this light entertainment, in whatever form, takes up in life (not just a child), the greater the impact. And if that is greater than the influence that promotes the willingness to learn, then what you observe comes out. As so often, the dose makes the poison. No medium or even human is solely responsible.

I believe that the opportunities to acquire knowledge have never been better, until now. There are z. B. Also many Youtubers in umpteen languages who want to and can teach others something. Even the Ivy League universities distribute their lectures in English in text and video form free of charge. Here and there there's something like that in German, too.

I can't judge how intelligent the influencers you mentioned are, but I think that in the end what will be produced is what can be sold best, regardless of the medium.

How to solve the problem No idea. I can find knowledge and diversion in (social) media. To persuade a child or a person, or rather to convince them to decide mainly for the former, is probably the holy grail. It should be almost impossible for parents, teachers, politics etc. To control all these influences on their own. We can't reverse the invention of the most diverse media and we have to come to terms with it now. In the end, it requires the cooperation of all of the above And various branches of science to find a solution. I think the subject is incredibly complex. Not everyone can or must be highly educated, but if you can prevent the standards from falling further, that would be something.

Today, social media help the "stupid" to connect. The people who are thought to be not the brightest star in the sky and whose views used to barely get out of the village pub can now easily network and grow into a crowd that develops an uncanny attraction and becomes another possible influence.

Will people be more intelligent in the past? Who knows. Most people will think their generation is better than the next.

I just stumbled across the so-called media impact research. Maybe you can start your further research there.