Oh, I totally get it. It’s super dumb, but being a kid is really hard these days; kind of ridiculously so.
Long story short: they got iPhones. Do I like it? No. Did it make me feel bad to pay into that dark pattern? Yeah. Did I do it anyway? Yup.
But at the end of the day, I had a choice between doing what I felt was right vs. doing what would make their lives just a little easier psychologically.
I did explain how stupid it was that Apple was doing this, how much it was complete and utter nonsense, and what dark patterns were. I can’t force their friends to do different things, but I can nudge their behavior. I taught them about Signal and they’ve shown their friends. It hasn’t caught on like wildfire of course, but, it’s there and I learned that at least some kids today understand a lot more about privacy and security than I’d given them credit for.
Oh, I totally get it. It’s super dumb, but being a kid is really hard these days; kind of ridiculously so.
Long story short: they got iPhones. Do I like it? No. Did it make me feel bad to pay into that dark pattern? Yeah. Did I do it anyway? Yup.
But at the end of the day, I had a choice between doing what I felt was right vs. doing what would make their lives just a little easier psychologically.
I did explain how stupid it was that Apple was doing this, how much it was complete and utter nonsense, and what dark patterns were. I can’t force their friends to do different things, but I can nudge their behavior. I taught them about Signal and they’ve shown their friends. It hasn’t caught on like wildfire of course, but, it’s there and I learned that at least some kids today understand a lot more about privacy and security than I’d given them credit for.