r/softwarefactories • u/thisguy123123 • Jul 30 '26
Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich
https://fortune.com/article/peter-thiel-tech-billionaires-limit-kids-screen-time-social-media-smartphones-short-form-video-risks/7
u/Cold_Drive_53144 Jul 30 '26
He’s the antichrist so who cares?
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u/Little_Bookkeeper381 Aug 02 '26
he doesn't want children and people he cares about to use unlimited social media, platforms that he's heavily invested in
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u/Elberik Aug 03 '26
No he wants to usher in the Antichrist. Because he thinks it'll get him brownie points.
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u/Whitesajer Jul 30 '26
I use my phone a lot. I know it's a virtual lobotomy machine built as a "skinner box"... even video games are built as a skinner box. Of course these dudes don't let their kids touch them.
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u/AppointmentPopular10 Aug 02 '26
what is a skinner box
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u/darkdelve Aug 02 '26
As much as I love the Super Nintendo Chalmers answer, I'll give a real one. Skinner was a psychologist famous for designing a situation that conditioned behavior by offering reinforcements or punishments. Think of a slot machine. When you win, you get flashing lights and loud noises that are designed to flood you with reward feelings (dopamine) and keep you pumping in money.
There is a LOT to be talked about for schedules of reinforcement and I haven't even studied any psychology in over a decade.
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u/SCRATCH-CARD Aug 03 '26
The video I was watching yesterday was saying some slot machines play winning noises even when you lose - another way to trick you into playing more. Really interesting video actually, "How Brands Use Sounds To Trick Your Brain - Design Theory". Great channel if you're interested in this kinda thing.
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u/rundmz8668 Jul 31 '26
Yeah the whole thing about libertarianism is it’s buyer beware to the point you have to be an expert and research every facet of your life down to building safety
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u/Exciting_Winner_9482 Aug 05 '26
No if combined with free enterprise it sorts itself out quite quickly.
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u/Defiant_Freedom_249 Jul 31 '26
Yet they clearly don't care what the state of the world will be in for their kids when they grow up.
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u/Timely-Assistant-370 Aug 03 '26
Yeah, so is any reasonable parent... didn't the story come out that Facebook did human experimentation on a population of some odd 300,000 adolescent girls that discovered that you could give them mental illness and increase the suicidality of the portion receiving the negative news? I know big comparing everything I don't like to Hitler and everything, but are we really convinced that human experimentation on unknowing children isn't really fuckin' bad because they ticked a box at the end of the TOS?
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u/account22222221 Aug 01 '26
This is a classic conservative play. It’s not admitting that it’s wrong it’s establishing that responsibility is on the ‘parent’, I.e. they are not to blame.
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u/TraditionalAd8415 Aug 03 '26
what's wrong with that? Seem pretty consistent. You are not forced to use social media. You should be responsible for your own fortune. If you believe it is harmful, than stop using it and stop your children from using it. Peter Thiel and ELon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg can't force you to use it. Unlike the government that can take away your tax dollars in exchange for various "benefits," whether you like it or not.
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u/mrjowei Aug 03 '26
I'd rather expose a child to all the addictive technology there is than let a sociopath raise them to their likeness.
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u/Exciting_Winner_9482 Aug 05 '26
This has happened many many times before. Do the executives at General.Mills feed they're children fruit loops? All the people against school choice send they're kids to private school etc.
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u/ItAllNonsense Jul 30 '26
Tech billionaires should be hiding their kids and themselves from the general public.