I am also an engineer, so my kids have had contact with advanced IT equipment since early childhood and are quite proficient by now. :-)

We also have a Chromebook with touchscreen at home, mainly so they can comfortably use some Android apps in a controlled environment (the 9 yo doesn’t yet have a smartphone of her own). Chromebooks in school are not really a thing here in Germany afaik.

Both kids have an account on our Linux desktop in our work/office room.
This is set up with a special German DNS that provides age-group appropriate filtered hostlists (“jusprog”).
To integrate that I used dnsmasq, which lets me easily modify the filters if needed.

It’s not perfect, as it could be easily circumvented, but we talk openly about it and I try to minimize severe restrictions, so they feel no need to tamper with it.
The kids are sometimes a little annoyed when something new doesn’t work directly, but know that this is the way that allows them to use the PC relative freely, so they are quite happy with the arrangement for now.

We also have a Linux Laptop and a tiny Mini-PC with Linux Mint attached to the TV, both of which they are only allowed to use with some supervision.

Edit:
They have some games that can be used with their accounts (the usual, Luanti, Supertux, Tuxracer).
The more complex Games are on a special account for which they don’t have the password themselves, but have to ask for access.
Older kid just got really involved in playing Oblivion, so proud! ;-)

Nope, neither a joke, nor Boomer.

GenX with late GenZ and early GenAlpha kids.
So no humor, just empiric observation.

Just this week my GenZ son told me to my astonishment, that out of his class of 30, only 3 still have a printer at home.

For my daughter in elementary school it is even worse.
Mobile phones and tablets essentially have completely replaced PCs and Laptops at home.

First time the kids come in contact with a text processing program is sometime during secondary school in class if they are lucky.

Meanwhile Gen Alpha:
“What is Word??”

Actually hell of an opening line!

l just did a quadruple take before I finally got it…

This sounds like a generic AI aphorism while the discussion has long moved on already.
Sorry, dude, not fitting any more and missing the point by now ;-)

Your statement is true and valid for the first few months of the pandemic, when everyone was frantically trying to get the infection rates down.

It didn’t apply any more to the longer lasting second phase of the pandemic (that’s the one I’ve been talking about).
Goal was to reach the endemic phase, meaning that almost everyone should get infected at least once, but without straining the healthcare system beyond its limits cause severe cases pile up in the intensive care units.

Kids had been known by then to:
a) not develop severe symptoms, thereby posing no problems for the hospitals themselves
b) being much less likely to infect other persons than grown-ups due to smaller lung volume and lower virus counts
c) be the most vulnerable group to lockdowns due to critical development stages happening in the early years in rapid succession

So the logical and responsible way to increase infection rates (which was wanted at that point to reach endemic stage) would be to keep schools and child centric activities open as early and much as possible, and only lifting restrictions for other groups of people gradually if numbers permit.

What happened instead is that restrictions were lifted globally for everyone based on incidence rates and hospital capacity (often divided by regions).
So, yes, school was open, but also the closed room restaurants and bars, where everyone was partying.
This rapidly let to shutdowns again to bring the incidence down (which took longer than the increase, due to involved infection maths).

So, for one and a half years the typical cycle was: Everything completely open for 2 weeks, followed by 3-4 weeks lockdown again, when the numbers had become to high.

In the analysis of the pandemic looking back, the handling of the school- and childcare situation has been the most criticized in my country, together with some nonsensical measures during lockdown (e.g. severe restriction of movement under open air).

So yes, children have been screwed unnecessary during the pandemic, mostly because some more influential lobby groups managed to push their agendas (e.g. hospitality industry and the influence of right-wing anti-vaxxer groups).

That’s actually interesting, didn’t know that (and also have no idea what Piefed actually is, I have to confess…)

Might especially be crucial information to OP, as she might not be aware that the pronouns she supplied on the page aren’t visible to a whole bunch of people.
Did you tell her already?
(Edit: I just did)

Did you realize you posted two different versions of the meme?
I just now realized when looking at this post via web browser. My phone’s Lemmy client showed me the first one, the second one was only tiny in some corner, so I didn’t notice it.
Changes the context somewhat.

Good that it turned out well for you!

My elder son (very late GenZ) wasn’t affected much, but my daughter developed severe issues, we even had to visit a child psychologist and youth counseling for quite some time.
She was four when the pandemic hit, and started school just when the worst was over, after having had almost no social contacts in her age group for almost two years and with some obsessive compulsive traits caused by all the strictly enforced rules and had anxiety issues after they were lifted.
Went into outright school refusal that took the better part of three years to get somewhat right again.
Friend’s daughter same age as my son developed some severe fear issues and psychological reversal issues. E.g. started crapping in her pants again and refusing to sleep alone at age 10.

Nothing funny with that at all, so please understand my initial harsh reaction after having only seen the first version of the meme in your post (the one with the dark dude).

@Speedforce@multiverse.soulism.net’s pronouns, which you can find by clicking on Her profile.

Except you can’t. I actually had a look at her profile before writing the comment and would have used the pronouns, if there had been any:

what could we have done differently

Lifting the schooling and meeting restrictions on the kids first, before every other relaxing measure, as they are the most affected by social deprivation and the least by Covid.

Instead we often did the opposite, making concessions to the loud “I can’t breath with masks and won’t vaccinate” lobby.

Cynical! Thank you, that was the word I have been looking for the whole time!

But I still think that posting the meme to this funny community reduces it to an actual joke.

Placing it under c/memes or so would still preserve its cynical form while much less affecting its serious core premise.

You didn’t quite get me I think:
In my opinion, only the putting of the meme under c/funny is taking away from its seriousness.
The meme itself is totally fine.

I’m GenX and we are also very much into fatalistic satirical humour (and absurdist humour - I actually enjoy brainrot - shoutout to GenZ: great work here!).
So I absolutely agree with trying to deal with dreadful stuff in form of biting satire.
But posting it under c/funny I perceive as derogative, as it implies: hey don’t take it serious.

Well, I don’t know OP, so maybe.

But the meme he posted is about a generation’s trauma and its dark consequences.
Totally belongs in a serious meme- or society-community, but seeing it filed under “funny” really annoys me.

ls it dark?
Yes, no question here.

But is it humour?

Compare to this statement:
“Me, a Catholic having been taught that using condoms is evil: happy because it feels more intense.
I now have an STD.”

It’s basically the same as the meme.

Funny?
Some still might think, but I really don’t.

Worth talking about?
Definitely!
But not as a joke.

Yeah, but putimg this (actually not bad) meme into a “funny” community feels a bit like taking a whole generation, that we seriously fucked up, not seriously.
Even if OP is still in his teens or so and was actually telling about his own struggle.

Downvoting because, honestly, not funny.

Seen too much socially and emotionally seriously crippled kids during the last few years to be able to laugh about that.

Surprised Pikachu Face

Dude, did you ever lift a stone or piece of wood in the forest to have a look at its dark underside?
All that the bugs do is to also switch colour to greyish-white and look even more nasty…

Even better:
Using the ultra-loud remote phone finding feature, giving your partner driving in the car you left it in nearly a heart attack.
Happened to us a few months back… 🥴