As a person who spends the majority of my day looking at screens of all types, I'd say it certainly affects my brain-- let alone a developing one.
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Hm... I think weed and vodka combined can`t do to a kid what a PC does. But thats why we love computers !
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Yeah, you need to smoke something like 200 joints in like 1 hour. So yeah, it is basically impossible to kill you.
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The LD50 for marijuana / THC amounts, indeed, to a 154-pound (about 70-kg) human eating approximately 3.05 pounds
(1.38 kg) of 15%THC-marihuana or 5 pounds (2.27 kg) of 10THC% hashish at one time, or smoking around between 80 and 90 grams of 15%THC-marihuana at one time. See the rest of the PDF for cases where they actually fed monkeys and dogs these kinds of numbers (adjusted for their body weight), and there were no major organ failures or anything else physiologically wrong with them.
I adjusted the values to correspond with what you could consider an average amount of THC% in stronger weed commonly sold in Dutch coffeeshops, and legal dispensaries in the US. Considering that an average joint contains between 0.15 and 0.4 grams (a user used to the effects / wanting to roll a very strong joint might roll up as much as an entire gram in one fat joint smoked over a 30 - 40 minute period), and that such a joint will already get you quite high, it would be impossible to smoke 80 - 90 grams at one time (so, within a half an hour or so). Ask anyone who's ever smoked weed / hash if they can / would ever want to try smoking 90 grams of any quality weed in one go. Watch the laughter erupt.
This article states that "the Merck index lists the LD50 (dosage of a certain chemical which will kill half of a population given that dosage) of pure THC to be 42mg / kg of body weight for rats when the THC is inhaled", which would correspond to 2.94 grams of pure THC in the aforementioned 70kg human. Again assuming 15%THC content in the weed, we get a figure of 19.6 grams of good weed in a short period of time. However, it's very important to note that a) this figure is based on very old research (don't feel like bothering to Google-source that one I'm afraid), and far more importantly b) the PDF I linked to first mentions "in summary, enormous doses of Delta 9 THC, All THC and concentrated marihuana extract ingested by mouth were unable to produce death or organ pathology in large mammals but did produce fatalities in smaller rodents due to profound central nervous system depression." With much smaller animals, stuff works far differently. A dose of something that can kill them / put them in a coma, would in many cases do nothing ill to an animal a few hundred times their mass, when the dose is adjusted for body weight. Also, in this case, death was caused by nervous system depression - the human nervous system is more complex than a mouses', and there's simply more of it. Our nervous system is far more resistant to such depression, also due to the higher activity present in it at any one time.
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And they're your parents, man. Be grateful that they care (even if you find it stifling).
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What I'm telling my son (15). We have installed an internet clock though for his PC (to make sure he goes to bed around 11pm :D), but as long as he keeps his school grades good and studies normally, we really won't limit hit PC/gaming hours...
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I agree, not sure what (kind) of drugs you are talking about but, the ones they get from doc. are often used to make pharm. very rich. Don't get me wrong, some meds are needed but, these often are far worse than natural med. When I was a kid you were lucky to get four chanels. Now it can take an hour to flip though everything to see nothing good is on.
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Iunno, reading sure did screw up my eyes a tad more'n video games.
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Most new games are dumbed down and hold your hand all the way through not letting you really use your brain... most that is, especially AAA titles.
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That's why I'm playing the old DOS games now, like Quake, Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem.
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Because playing Duke Nukem really stimulates you intellect!
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Well, old games were built like a maze, now today's FPS games are just "MOVE FROM POINT A TO POINT B" "SHOOT TO KILL ENEMIES" "IF YOU DUCK YOU CAN FIT IN THIS HOLE"
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not a DOS game, but portal is a good one for critical thinking, etc.
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My parents don't let me play at all on the weekdays. And only 2 hrs on weekends
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"books are retro"
I cringed, even if it is a joke.
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It helps me; it strains my eyes; and my eyes easily close shut and I go into deep sleep.
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It doesn't help. Studies show that even if your eyes get tired your brain gets stimulated at the same time and it's not deep sleep that you're going into. You may be falling asleep quickly because your organism goes into "emergency shutdown", not a "deep regeneration" mode.
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That's disturbing to say the least. Tolkien is not someone people should read in childhood, he's an extracurricular author at best.
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Perhaps, but making children read something that essentially is an exercise in linguistics is not the solution.
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There's a huge difference in reading a difficult author with scaffolding and without. You wouldn't expect a 13 year old to read and completely understand Shakespeare by himself. You give him help in understanding it and walk him through it.
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What does it have to do with Tolkien? Children should not read his works not because they are difficult to comprehend, but because they are written not by a writer but by a linguist, who came up with all this Middle-earth as an excuse to invent Elvish languages. Oh, and because it's a fantasy.
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Well, honestly, I don't see a problem in me reading silmarillion at that age. I understood most of it like I said and always had my dad explain me things I did not. And if a ten a year old can have harry potter read to him as a pass time, I don't see why a 13 year old cant read Tolkien's works.
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The problem is that you were made to read it when what you should have been made to read was Dickens, Dreiser, Hemingway, Byron, Shakespeare, and many, many others.
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Yes; it annoys me; but I usually pull out a book at start reading; or use my iPod. In all honesty I like reading books and riding my bike rather than playing on my iPod.
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That's because of Thanksgiving break. My parents let me play on holidays and breaks.
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I'd say it depends on the situation really, I could see limiting it if he would do so 24/7. But it could also be the parents worrying about the Kid's sociability.
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Kinda stupid to try and raise someone else's (imaginary) children, to be honest.
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That's a very ironic sentence.
There's no logical reason for not letting your children harness the most powerful tool in the world, the Internet. Just don't let them go crazy. In the mid 90s when the Internet became more accessible (at least in Germany), I barely got to use it, but it was magical having all this information just there. I started using the Internet for homework before teachers knew what that meant.
Now I could not imagine researching any topic without it. Would it be possible? Yes. Would it take longer? Yes. Would it add any value not using the Internet? No.
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There's a difference between using the computer and the internet for homework/learning, and for playing Call of Duty: Ninja Alien Squirrel.
I've dealt with a personal online addiction of my own before half the people here were even born. I'm not going to let my kids go through the same thing.
On the same note, my kids will get drunk for the first time in my home, in front of my eyes.
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no PC for you, but yes, you can get drunk...
I'm no one to tell you about this, but, without internet access I wouldnt know everything I know right now. I'm 16 years old, one year left to graduate from high school with the best marks (and one year earlier than it should be) thanks to everything I can find within 10 seconds, learnt English (I'm from Uruguay) from video games and forums (A2 level at Cambridge), and hey, I have never been drunk (not only at home, but anywhere), I dont do drugs and I'm not addicted to the computer / video games / internet. Luckily my mom noticed that PC / Internet was something good and did never stop me from using it
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I dont like alcoholic drinks at all, I don't see that happening in the future (or atleast in the next years)
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FALSE! PERSONAL EXAMPLE! One friend and I were the only people in my entire high school class who didn't have a phone, because I have to pay for all that stuff on my own or Christmas. I believe I was way better off without all the drama crap, wasting time, and becoming a zombie. I see people all the time texting and they can't even listen to what you're saying they're so occupied. My kids will not play video games til they're at least 10 and have to pay for their own cell phone, laptop, etc. I will provide internet and Christmas presents only when it comes to there electronics
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In most cases, in order to have a child, one is supposed to have sex with a person of opposite gender.
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You mean that whole stork thing is a smoke screen?
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I didn't have a phone until I was 17, and even then it was just a basic prepaid thing, no touchscreens or apps or anything fancier than an address book. However, payphones kind of don't exist anymore, and if your kid needs to get ahold of you and don't have their own phone then they're kinda shit out of luck.
I definitely understand not wanting to give your ten year-old a $500 iPhone, but I don't think it's a bad idea to give your fourteen year-old a $30 prepaid Nokia that can make calls and send texts and that's it.
But hey, they're your kids you can raise them how you want.
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Here's the kicker: payphones may not exist any more, but most people carry a phone with them. If something happens, there's a much higher probability of the child being able to contact you than there was several decades ago.
Also, a 14yo is more than able to earn/save money to buy themselves a phone and pay the monthly bills. I'm fine with that.
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I'm just glad you weren't born before the invention of penicillin...
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When you were growing up were you using cars, microwave ovens, ballpoint pens, calculators etc? Because your ancestors were just fine without all of it.
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Exactly. Why doesn't he go and live like the cavemen if technology is so evil?
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None of my children had mobile phones until they were able to buy one themselves. I used a technique called parenting where you ask your children where he's going and expect him to be back at the hour you've set for him.
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And no one is saying that that's bad. We're just arguing that letting your children have no access is a disadvantage to them.
I got an old cell phone from my sister when I was thirteen or fourteen and then I just bought prepaid minutes. It's cheap enough that my allowance covered it easily. Teaching your children that kind of financial responsibility is great. Denying them all access is not.
If you don't know how to use a computer, you're not getting a good job. People have to be proficient now, by the time they go out to get real jobs, people will expect more computer capabilities than they do now.
And this is really aimed more at mkrnic obviously.
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I haven't expressed myself properly...
The kids aren't going to get full, unrestricted computer access until they can afford to buy their own - and then they can do whatever the hell they want with it. I don't want any access to that machine. If they fuck it up, they'll fix it. I'm not touching any of that. Not my business, not my problem.
Homework and learning on my computer are fine. However, my computer isn't going to be used for Facebook, porn, gaming and chatting. Isn't going to happen. It's my computer.
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"Not my business not my problem" That's a very bad way to view parenting. I thought you were all "Holier than thou" but telling people you don't care what your child does while on the computer is bad parenting indeed.
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No, it's not. It's called "giving your children privacy and trusting them". If they're old enough to earn money to buy themselves a computer, then they are going to fucking have it in full, without mommy or daddy standing behind their shoulders and watching their every move.
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I hope you are a troll.
A lot of schools now require students to have internet access and to do their assignments on computers.
Do you make them go to a library (where they have limited time and access) ?
or are you just some Luddite fuck?
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You got it all in reverse. Children don't become asocial because they spent too much time on the Internet, they spent too much time on the Internet because they are asocial.
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I would say it depends on the kid. Too much staring at a screen can strain the eyes. I do think that if a kid is a good kid who does his homework and acts like a good kid they should be allowed to have more of a say if they want to play video games. Giving them a 30 min to 1 hour window at a time to play video games then make them take a break is a good idea though. I just don't see limiting a good kid to 30 min to an hour a day as being the right thing to do, kids should be rewarded for hard work and acting good.
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In one hand I agree with parents(even tough I suffer a lot with gaming and my mum) that we should go outside, go talk to friends, have a little stab fights in the street(highly popular) and so on. On the other hand, outside is raining, friends...2years ago I had those, I had to change school and my new class is hell, stab fight...killing is against the rules...
I must say, I would like to go out and have some fun with friends, but there is no friends because everyone is playing CoD or BF in PS3. Then everything I have left is my pc with some low specs games(or stab fight, which I always break the rules).
I sometimes go to the woods too, they are much friendly that most people in this world.
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It's the parents that don't want to spend too much time playing with their own kids so they tell them to do other stuff, but not to play videogames for some reason. Also there's only one period of time in a person's life when you don't have to bother with "time management" bullshit and that's when you're a kid, so it's a bit stupid to enforce it on the kids telling them they can only do an activity for a limited period of time in a day.
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I think the time limit thing is so they develop more hobbies and interests beyond computer games/tv. Gaming can get very time consuming and addictive to some degree. As you know, that is why some parents feel that it is their job as parents, to have rules and boundaries, because the kid is generally not mature enough to set his own boundaries or see the big picture.
But this goes for pretty much everything; moderation and balance is key. Gaming, sporting (yeah, people can get too obsessed about that to), reading, watching tv, etc.
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As a parent, I think it's important to set some boundaries. Of course, as a gamer I might be a little more flexible on gameplay duration than others. :P
I never really had to set a time limit on computer/console use because there wasn't any real abuse from my kids. Although if I felt things were spiraling out of control I would have set harder limits. Common sense is often an important factor in good parenting.
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I did grow up with only 2-3 hours of gaming time pr day at the PC from my adoptive parents, as hard as I saw it back then, I have to admit I´m damn happy now when seeing how the young generation is completely lost to basic things in the nature.
So it sounds a lot harder than it is but it is very good for the child.
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So, basically you're happy because you see other people suffer more than you had?
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lol when my daughter gets old enough she is going to have limits and I already have a pre-approved list of my steam games she can play.
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Gaming is a very different experience these days than it was when I was a kid. I had days where I spent all day playing video games (weekends of course) and days where I didn't touch 'em because my friends and I were out riding bikes around the neighborhood all day - then coming in later than we should've and getting yelled out for being late for dinner. XD
I definitely played a lot of video games then, but I was just as social with my friends and got out just as much - and still managed to usually get my homework done. The difference is that when I was a kid, NES was just on it's way out and Genesis and SNES were in their prime. Couldn't really shut yourself in a room by yourself to play games with your friends. Gaming was, in general, a more social experience in terms of actually being around others and being somewhat of a host to your friends on a regular basis.
These days, you don't have to be anywhere near your friend to play games with them, and it doesn't lend itself well to children becoming socially aware and capable of dealing with people in a social setting. So, even though I'm a gamer, I will be watching the gaming habits of my children (my first due in March, but we intend to have a second within a couple of years =D). I may not be as strict on time limits as my wife, but I've been gaming for 29 years now, (about to turn 31 - my mom had me young and felt an NES would keep me out of her hair XD). As long as my children keep up with schoolwork and do their chores, actually go out and play with friends regularly, and don't let me hear them cuss until they're at least 17, I'm okay with it. Now if I ever catch my kid screaming like those obnoxious 12-year-olds on Call of Duty multi-player, there's gonna be some tighter gaming rules in the house, to say the very least.
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I see no problem with limiting time. Kids don't know how to limit themselves so you should definitely do it for them.
How much is up to the individual parent. You can turn it into a game. Do chores/homework/play sports/socialise/etc, get xp. XP turns into levels which turns into more game time and so on and so forth. By having your kid do social activities to earn game time, they will soon have more than they will use.
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There's actually a neat website exactly for that. Chore Wars.
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Thats very nice and interesting. I would love to use it but my gf cant even keep up on submitting her expenses on her phone app...
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I was wondering is playing video games that much worse than watching tv or reading a book
Many parents still limit how much television time their children are allowed. Some even include video gaming in that time. And I come from a family of readers. One of my sisters, and my brother, both needed their reading time limited by my parents, and their teachers, to make sure stuff that needed to be done was done. An excess of anything is bad. Children are bad at setting limits for themselves. If they can't do it, and end up doing anything excessively, sure the parent should step in and set limits.
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If grades are solid and the child appears act normal. I see no reason to restrict them, unless they are not sleeping in order to game or can't leave the PC/console in order to go out. But well written video games can be good for your child. Even RPGs. It can increase their vocabulary to a college level. But you have to keep them away from some of the rubbish that is coming out in today's market.
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Dunno how long it would take to finish games at 30mins a day.
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Limiting the kids its not a bad thing. Yeah of course we never liked it as kids and kids will never like it but when you grow a bit older you understand what was all about.
Though to much limitation can and will, backfire some day.
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So as the title says. There were some parents who limits their children to about 30min to 1h a day for gaming but there want mentioned about their own habits about spending their own time so I was wondering is playing video games that much worse than watching tv or reading a book if the kid does his homework and cleans his room and stays social with his friends? Any thoughts on this?
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