HOW KIDS’ TV SHOWS KEEP THEM DUMB & DUMBER

By Dr Tim O’Shea, author of Vaccination is Not Immunization

www.thedoctorwithin.com

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The point here is, watch what your kids are watching. It’s not sex and violence that presents the worst threat to child development. It’s programmed dullness.

Look at the finished products we’re turning out.

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All the insights into syndicated propaganda and the science of media that we talked about in The Doors of Perception chapter – much of its darker aspect is manifested in the content of children’s movies, videos, and the games they’re watching on their ipads today. Grateful though parents are for those precious hours of quiet, the trade-off will shake out as betrayal in the long run. As well as creating yet another generation of doltish, uninspired, inarticulate high school and college students.

It starts at the beginning, when the kid’s brain is first introduced to the concept of pixels and sound – TVs, computers, ipads, iphones, apps. Parents brag about how electronic-savvy their 2 year old is, how fast they learn to drag and drop, refresh, move the cursor, download, log in etc. So sorry, but that’s not intelligence. No, that’s just Skinner’s rats in the box, pushing the lever for a pellet. The only likelihood is that it trains them for a lifetime of cretinous texting. LOL ?? Please.

I’M TERRIFIED OF MY NEW TV: WHY I’M SCARED TO TURN THIS THING ON — AND YOU’D BE, TOO

By Michael Price –
Brennan Center for Justice

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“Don’t say personal or do sensitive stuff in front of the TV.

You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening.”

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November 8, 2014

I just bought a new TV. The old one had a good run, but after the volume got stuck on 63, I decided it was time to replace it. I am now the owner of a new “smart” TV, which promises to deliver streaming multimedia content, games, apps, social media, and Internet browsing. Oh, and TV too.

The only problem is that I’m now afraid to use it. You would be too — if you read through the 46-page privacy policy.

The amount of data this thing collects is staggering. It logs where, when, how, and for how long you use the TV. It sets tracking cookies and beacons designed to detect “when you have viewed particular content or a particular email message.” It records “the apps you use, the websites you visit, and how you interact with content.”

It ignores “do-not-track” requests as a considered matter of policy.

It also has a built-in camera — with facial recognition. The purpose is to provide “gesture control” for the TV and enable you to log in to a personalized account using your face. On the upside, the images are saved on the TV instead of uploaded to a corporate server. On the downside, the Internet connection makes the whole TV vulnerable to hackers who have demonstrated the ability to take complete control of the machine.

More troubling is the microphone. The TV boasts a “voice recognition” feature that allows viewers to control the screen with voice commands. But the service comes with a rather ominous warning:

“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Got that?

Don’t say personal or do sensitive stuff in front of the TV.

You may not be watching, but the telescreen is listening.

The Wild, Wild Web: Wrestling Online Privacy

The Frugaldad comes though again with an eye popping chart on just how vulnerable we have become on the web.

Last week we debuted an infographic on the SOPA blackout, showing how the internet has become a powerful tool for activism. But the spread of social media also has its risks. Those same sites that we use to connect to family, friends and our community can also compromise sensitive information. According to Carnegie Mellon researchers, information listed on social media may be enough to guess a social security number, the key to identity theft. And with mobile banking apps, more and more people are logging sensitive information from their smart phones. Add confusing Terms of Service agreements into the mix (they take an average of 10 minutes each to read!), and it’s easy to see why online privacy can feel mystifying.

The following infographic helps explain some of the biggest issues in web safety and gives tips on how to keep yourself protected, from passwords to privacy policies. With a few steps, you can be confident that you control what you share online. Click here to view graphic!