Senator Ted Cruz is trying to block Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolchildren

[arkouda@lemmy.ca]

Seeing how many people believe you are wrong, I am going to post the reasons why you are right so hopefully the people in disagreement understand:

Recommendations state that children and adolescents should have screen time limited to 2 hours a day or less, with emphasis on "less". If the average school day is 5-6 hours with an average of 2 hours of homework a night, and everything is done on screens, we are actively violating scientific health guidelines and damaging the students brains.

Reading books is better for the brain than reading the same information from a screen as there is less stimuli being processed while reading the book allowing the brain to have more focus on the processing of information.

Writing by hand is a proven way to retain and better understand information. Learning and practicing writing in both block and cursive improves these outcomes further. Typing, even on a typewriter, does not have the same benefits.

The fact that so many people do not understand these three very important things demonstrates a lot of ignorance and bias for technology. How many studies are needed before the "Regulations should be based in scientific study" crowd stop pushing against the recommendations of the scientific community?

[humanspiral@lemmy.ca]

Hotspot lending could “censor kids’

definition of censorship is not your access to alternatives to the "state propaganda curriculum". Access to alternatives is in fact the opposite of censorship.

[lodemike@lemmy.today]

Remember when he tweeted out a pornhub video

[bogasse@lemmy.ml]

I've seen much pointless dumb shit these last days, but this one still manages to shine.

[imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com]

Are you even serious right now? God damn it. Who made these rules?

[imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com]

Me too, they didn't require constant connectivity. I went to the library or computer lab. Lots of kids in my class didn't have a home computer. And even though my family did, it didn't give me an advantage on those assignments. We all had to manage doing them at school on a school computer. Thank God they didn't have Facebook.

[soup@lemmy.world]

First, you said “I completely agree with him”. If you do not understand how that might mean we think that means you agree with his rationale then writing your assignments by hand clearly didn’t help you that much.

But anyway:

Because sometimes you need to research things for homework? Because the kids with reliable internet will still be able to use it, will use it, and will have an unfair advantage over the kids who don’t have the same level of access(usually because their parents aren’t as well off, perpetuating the cycle of poverty). Even if we decided that every single piece of homework was to be 100% handwritten that wouldn’t make the internet go away and these problems would still persist.

It’s so much more nuanced than some weak take that doesn’t do much but expose your lack of understanding of the issue. Yes, there are some clear advantages to maybe scaling things back a little but this not the way to do it, not even a little bit.

[gerbler@lemmy.world]

Why do these fuckers spend so much time and effort trying to make things worse? Like there's scapegoating immigrants because it'll rile up your voter base and get you re-elected and then there's shit like taking away lunch from kids. Like who does that even benefit?

I'm genuinely asking if they just get giddy with excitement at the thought of making things worse for other people.

[imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com]

No, I said I completely agree with this, this being that the state should not be providing wifi hotspots to school children. I was surprised that I actually agreed with Cruz on this because I pretty much never agree with him and consider him, in the words of John Boehner, Lucifer in the flesh. And I'm sorry if some of you thought I meant that I completely agreed with him on what he startes as his justification (morality police, censorship, etc.) which isn't the case.

But instead all you trigger-ready comment warriors are ready to burn me at the stake for what's really a pretty sensible position.

Wifi hotspots aren't going to eliminate inequality. Students eith reliable Internet may have an unfair advantage, but teachers and administrators could minimize that by giving assignments that don't really require Internet access to complete.

Should all assignments be hand written, of course not. But do they need to be completed in a web browser? Nope. Good old word processor and spreadsheets work great.

Holy moly, everybody is on edge. Understandable...

[jadelord@discuss.tchncs.de]

I agree to a certain extent; at least elementary school should and remain device free.

[flocklesscrow@lemm.ee]

Polite society stopped allowing for said types to receive a hearty fist to the face

[socialmediarefugee@lemmy.world]

Wouldn't blocking them completely restrict them from "exposure to conservative viewpoints."?

[nutwrench@lemmy.world]

"The government shouldn't be complicit in harming students or impeding parents' ability to decide what their kids see by subsidizing unsupervised access to inappropriate content,"

Like Fox News or OAN.

[snowpix@lemmy.ca]

Misery loves company, and these are very miserable, angry, hateful people. If they can't be happy, no one can.

[lovablesidekick@lemmy.world]

TIL there are hotspots in Cancun.

[unphazed@lemmy.world]

I do not like that man Ted Cruz...

[mossheart@lemmy.ca]

Or the sun, a more appropriate vacation place to send Cruz.

[lovablesidekick@lemmy.world]

Best tan ever! for a few seconds.

[helpimtrappedonline@lemmy.world]

And that's how we end up with young adults entering the work force that can't

• type
• navigate the web safely
• save something to a specified directory
• transfer a file
• maintain backups
• recognize suspisous websites/news/ads
• navigate the constantly changing Microsoft UIs
• troubleshoot anything as simple as turning on the computer screen

The world is different than it was 30 years ago, if we don't prepare them for the internet age, then they will fail.

I do agree, physical books and learning off-screen is very important. Letting kids use the open web all day is not helpful, but bring them the computer lab to teach them the productive uses of a computer.

[abidanyre@lemmy.world]

Then you followed it up with:

I don't want my children even using devices at all for any purpose

So the comment you're replying to wasn't taking some giant leap in logic.

Where are you going to draw the line on what kids should be allowed to use on homework? A slide rule for math? A four function calculator? Matlab? How about research papers? Is Wikipedia allowed or should their family be required to have a printed encyclopedia?

You said earlier that you had to go to the library or the computer lab when you were a kid. You know what they're going to do at the library? Sit in front of a computer and pull up Google. How is that any better/different than just giving them an access point to use from home other than now they don't need to find a ride.