Off Topic Social Media and the death of Twitter

Their parents probably make up a large proportion of obese adults in the U.K,lazy slobs who can't be arsed cooking a hot meal for their kids.

I'd close Macdonalds and Greggs and make the pie Hoover's cook for their offspring..

 

Should alcohol be legal for kids?

 

Only because they can't break the VPN you're using.

 

You mean the Carnt be arsed element of society ?
That is becoming a larger percentage by the year .

 

Well I don't know what the numbers are regarding obese parents and obese children, but clearly whatever is happening is not working on that front either.

I do understand your point about parental choice, but it's probably safe to assume those same parents who give their kids a Greggs sausage roll for dinner are probably the same ones who chuck them a tablet or xbox with no restrictions to shut them up for a few hours. Unfortunately, the internet has become so integral to what we do that we have left it run pretty much unchecked and when governments do call social media companies in to hold them to account, they make thin promises that they never keep because they have profits and shareholders to sustain. I grew up in the 90s when the Internet was still on dial up and only just becoming a household thing and it only took a few years for it to become a necessity, but even back then with things like MSN Messenger it was an issue in schools because it was used by children with little to no restrictions.

Things like McDonalds are poison and I wouldn't be sad to see them go, balls to em.

 

Obesity levels have increased across the world and catching the US and UK up, apart from in Oriental Asian cultures. The countries where levels are soon surpassing the UK and US are countries where women traditionally prepare meals at home from scratch, such as India, and dont eat takeaways or premade food, such as Romania.

Calorific content was often higher in the 1950s - sedentary lifestyles probably more to blame overall for childhood obesity than a sausage roll.

 

Thatcher's mostly responsible for the ****ing ridiculous "post truth" era we find ourselves in, wharra ****.

But the problem isn't women working, not at all. My wife works full time and we make homecooked meals for our kids no problem, hell we grow about 80% of our vegetables across the year thanks to her efforts in the garden. The issue is that as a collective, society always opts for the easier option even if it's detrimental, it's why this country is so susceptible to populism. We want our cake (literally) and to be able to eat it. People can accept they're not well off, but will take out high interest car loans because they want to be socially ahead. I think it's weird that on a macro level, you don't see many people buying big houses on mortgages they can't afford, yet they have no problem getting a top of the range AMG Merc while working as an Amazon delivery driver.

 

It's not practical to deliver on foot though, they need wheels.

 

Amazon literally give them vans. They're not allowed to stop for the toilet all day, but they do get a van.

 

Think you and your wife have got it right on several levels but you I fear are quite an exception . Like I said consumerism has taken over most of its shallow and unnecessary , when my mum died in the home , sh had a few clothes , jewellery and a few pics , not much to show for a life but then it’s what you do not what you’ve got .
All the rest should be to make your life pleasant not to impress strangers .

 

There are 14-year-old students at the school I work at whose parents buy them vapes and even alcohol.

A more pertinent question would be ‘should these people be allowed to procreate?’.

 

I agree, but that brings us nicely back to social media. Because the bigger platforms aren't just for communicating, they're for trying to make you look better than you actually are. Nobody puts pictures up on Facebook for their own pleasure, it's because they want other people to see what a great time they're having and be envious without having to actually speak to them, there's no other reason to do it. My Mum does it with my kids when she takes them out and I often have to tell her off because a) I don't want my kids on Facebook and b) she could just send the pics to me or to whoever she's trying to show up.

Social media has given people, who should never have had a platform in the first place, an audience to say things that nobody wants to ****ing hear anyway. Like me, for example. .

 

So because people find work arounds there's no point trying to reduce access? You didn't actually answer my question.

How do you retroactively ban people from procreating?

 

That's shocking. Genuinely, is anyone, social services for example, talking to the parents to explain that they're doing wrong?

 

I was being flippant. I’m not actually advocating for eugenics and forced sterilisations.

Purchasing alcohol and tobacco products, in the UK at least, requires a person to be at least 18 and I don’t see a reason to change that. I also don’t see a reason to make social media 16+ only.

 

You'd think the teachers should be reporting it.

 

Have you done much research on the impact of social media on a developing adolescent brain? Have you seen the rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, etc. that have spiked since smart phones in 2009/2010? There's plenty of research out there now that there's been essentially an entire generation raised on the stuff. ''The Anxious Generation" is a fantastic read for starters.

 

My wife is a food and textiles teacher at secondary school, a subject that (OK I may be biased) I think should be mandatory for all kids, but it has been absolutely torn to pieces over the past 14 years such that hardly any kids are doing it. If you want to try and solve the problems linked to fast food education is a fundamental cornerstone of that, investing in showing ALL kids (no matter what their up bringing or parents) how to cook from fresh and teaching them the benefits of a balanced diet should pay back ten fold over time but sadly it's not happening any time soon.

I look back at my schooling, never did a single lesson in what was home ec back then, consequently went off to uni after which I prob went 10 plus years at least without cooking from fresh, wasn't til I met my wife and learned how to cook veg that I actually started to enjoy veg as I never knew what to do with it. Was always fortunate that I played so much sport that it kept me fit, but certainly not healthy.

 

Prob not, social services have been so savagely cut to the bone that they'd never ever be able to pick up on something like that....not big enough or serious enough compared to what they'll be dealing with day to day

 

We can make referrals for Early Help but it requires the consent and cooperation of the parents, I think. I’d ask to ask the safeguarding lead.

I do know the threshold for social services to get involved is quite high and things like kids bragging about their parents buying them Elfbars and tinnies for birthdays or just as a treat doesn’t meet that threshold. Social services just bounce it back. They usually just tell the school to ask the parents directly if it’s true so our safeguarding lead has the difficult conversation of ‘so and so made a concerning comment to a member of staff when caught vaping today that their mum buys them for him and is fine with it, is that the case?’ to which the parents usually just say ‘uh, erm, no I don’t know where he gets them from…’ which you can make of that what you will.