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Tracy's avatar

I was a campaign volunteer in the ATL area where we were one of the few places that actually swung left. It is terrible.

I think there is never one answer. I do think there is truth to the local governance disgust turning people away from identifying as a Democrat. But for this election, all we heard about was the gender gap during early voting, with women being dominant, but in Election Day, it shrunk thanks to low propensity young male voters turning out after their media networks convinced them Trump was what we needed.

Every time I spoke to a GenX or GenZ (parents and their kids) Trump voter this cycle, they were spouting information to me from sources I never knew existed. The number of people who mentioned Peanut the Squirrel the last week. All those 2021-2022 “unearthed podcast clips” of JD Vance from places no one heard of, but are actually super popular among young men. People constantly asking me how I could volunteer for a dumb woman who slept her way to the top and had never done anything worthwhile in her life.

It is hard for smart people to really grasp this, but this was a vibes election and perhaps presidential elections always are. People wanted the Trump vibe. No matter what Harris policies were, most of those people would never heard of them in their corner of TikTok and Discord. How do we operate in a functioning democracy like this?

As a parent of a boy, it really gives me pause about the future. Last week, my sweet eight year old asked my dog if he was gay. I sat him down to find out what that was about and with enough info, eventually tied it to a meme from a TikTok creator. My son does not have TikTok. Content that threatens are decency is just everywhere. I wonder if in the reflections on what went wrong and where we go next, we will miss the bigger picture.

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Tom Hayden's avatar

As a parent of a 9 year old boy, I could write a book about Youtube and their insufficient parental controls.

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Theo's avatar

Yes! Please have a chapter explaining why District 65 gives my 8 year old a frickin iPad which he only seems to use to watch youtube shorts. And an appendix with the email from the principal of his school that asked parents to tell their kids not to use their iPads on the playground before school because they were getting dirty and we would have to pay for their replacement if they broke!

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Steve D's avatar

This is driving me and my wife insane. Our second grader has been able, during the school day, to successfully google "Riz lines wallpaper" (he has no idea what this means). Some of the search results were unbelievably inappropriate.

I'm a public educator at the high school level and began my career long before student iPads (or laptops). I find very little of educational value in them, even for my juniors. Why we are using them to teach elementary students is beyond me. In fact, I think it borders on educational malpractice.

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Sandy's avatar

Saw this post from a reader on Talking Points Memo that recounted how their 20-something male kid commented on the machinations of the YouTube algorithm. You start off looking at a Minecraft video and a couple of videos in you get offered up Joe Rogan.

So when an equity grifter con-artist like Biz chides the community for bringing "toxic masculinity" into the schools, she should look in the mirror and ask why the district is actively enabling this through their choices in instructional materials.

Whenever I've seen a critique of the District's shoving iPads down kids throats on the Equity Army's Facebook page, their response is that it is improving equity since richer families have access to technology.

It is a dumb argument and---like everything that the Board and Administration pushes--it is wholly separated from the task that should be at the center of their concern: what is the best way to educate the kids?

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/your-reactions-14

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Tom Hayden's avatar

I think I am going to take on this cause - YouTube on the tablets. As a parent, it is a constant whack a mole with that thing - even if you impose strict parental controls, there are so many ways around it. Youtube Kids with whitelists are the best way to go but even then, they find workarounds - I caught him watching unregulated Youtube on his Oculus the other day - something I didn’t even think was possible.

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Theo's avatar

I think the issue goes beyond YouTube. What is the evidence that iPads are superior to using actual books, worksheets, notebooks etc?

Of course the Board is so clueless about this. We should remember that they have signed on to actually sue YouTube while they are distributing devices that can access the platform. Good luck with that.

https://meetings.boardbook.org/Documents/CustomMinutesForMeeting/1247?meeting=586519

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