this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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Kids are short-circuiting their school-issued Chromebooks for TikTok clout (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 day ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world 18 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Nearly 20 years ago, I was in a computer programming class surrounded by clunky towers and desktops.

Suddenly, a loud popping, then one of the machines starts belching smoke like a budget fog machine. The kid using it is calmly moved to another station while the prof investigates.

Fifteen minutes later - pop. Smoke again.

Turns out the kid was jamming a paperclip into the power supply like he was playing Operation: Arson Edition.

That was his last day.

On the bright side, computers are a lot cheaper now - and kids are still dumb. So, maybe progress?

[–] mhague@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

I have the same memory, except the teacher would just pop his head out from the office and tell us to knock it off. Someone managed to draw a giant line of Axe spray across the electronics desk/counter things and made a massive fireball. Nobody really got in trouble in that class.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 29 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

I remain utterly convinced that Tiktok is nothing but a chinese psyop experiment to see how far they can manipulate people into actions that would otherwise be prevented by our brains screaming in self preservation.

Has there ever been a "good" trend on tiktok? Every week its just another destructive thing that gullible idiots are being tricked into doing.

[–] RangerJosey@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Soon as Chump took office the moderation flipped. It was open and handled well. Now if you call a corrupt politician an asshole you get a violation.

Talk about Palestine get a violation. Critical of the Chump regime get a violation.

Chow somehow inserted himself fully up Chumps ass on like Jan 22. TT hasn't been the same since.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

TikTok always favored Trump because China always favored Trump and TikTok is operated by Chinese Military directly out of Chinese servers which also store location data, contacts, text message history, and photo library of every device which has ever installed TikTok.

It's a weapon to be used against the US now and since always.

[–] lowered_lifted@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 2 hours ago

Accurate username

[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I agree. I was exposed to a lot of leftist content on tiktok and it's made me want to protest. Good thing you explained that it's stupid.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

TBF TikTok wants the US Government to fail regardless of who is in office at the time.

It's like that meme from flippanarchy the other day.

[–] midori_matcha@lemmy.world 8 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Why throw the kids in the slammer? So they can eventually come back out as hardened criminals and contribute to the recidivism statistics, further circling society down the drain because they were betrayed by the corporations that injected their explosive products into our tax-funded school systems? They should give the TikTok kids full STEM scholarships for exposing these dangerous design flaws!

Hold the Chromebook manufacturer liable for the unsafe hardware design flaw with no overcurrent protection, hold the school liable for recklessly issuing these dangerous laptops that cheaped out on safety features, and hold Google liable for neglecting power handling in their Chromebook software! Get the CPSC on the phone and get every single Flamebook recalled across the nation!

It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous!

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

But how else will google sell overpriced computers to schools despite lack of funding and force children to growing up with google products?

[–] KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Isn't the entire premise of Chromebooks is that they are extremely cheap compared to having actual laptops or iPads?

[–] frostysauce@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Parents and psychiatrists have been trying to wrap their heads around how some of the more dangerous Internet trends take off, especially among kids.

Kids are dumb and they do dumb things. There's not really that much to wrap one's head around.

[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

And it's not even like Internet trends are a new thing. TikTok has simply offered a platform that's extra predatory about it.

I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Anyone else remember kids watching videos of other kids nearly choking to death on cinnamon, and thinking "hey this looks like fun"?

Or the "chug a gallon of milk" thing? Those "trends" were just weirdly masochistic and sadistic. It wasn't even misinformation or anything. Kids watched other kids suffer, and then chose to suffer too.

I can imagine that TikTok has been for Internet trends, to what slot machines did for gambling.

It's closer to what mobile apps did for gambling. Crazy how quickly that was normalized in the US, and it's tragic how easily people can just delete thousands of dollars from their bank account on a whim from the comfort of their couch.

I guess what I'm saying is, maybe sometimes children and adults really do need some protection from their stupid impulses.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Yeah, like, first time?

The presentation has changed slightly but the content is much the same. Back in the good old days I was a moderator on Totse forums (the original, but its web bulletin board incarnation and not when it was a BBS) and we literally had an entire subforum just titled "Bad Ideas." This was where things got launched, torched, smoked, blown up, stolen, scammed, or otherwise mutilated. Or at the very least all of the above talked about, at length. All of this with an strong implicit suggestion to try it yourself. Most of the kiddos did not actually have the means to pull of what they claimed they did but the ones who could and more importantly had the means to prove it were celebrities. Usually only for a short time, for various reasons.

The early Internet was basically just a repository for bickering about Star Trek, low grade porn, plans for how to build potato cannons, or schemes involving smoking dried banana peels. An immense amount of stupidity has always been there to be found, because the place was and is full of teenagers and teenagers are stupid.

I sure was, when I was one.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 11 points 7 hours ago

So you mean there are laptop USB ports out there without current limiters?
I would want to check my PC's ports, but I am not filthy rich, so I'll just assume stuff is not current limited.

[–] aTun@lemm.ee 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I thought system will turn off USB port if notice current over draw. Look like I am wrong.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

What i saw they were shorting the charging ports, not the USB slots.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Both ports the same. Two girls, one port? Killing two birds with one port?

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Lots of chromebooks have bog standard barrel jack plugs.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 37 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

I wish we lived in a world where they're doing it because they don't want locked-down toys issued by an evil corporation. But of course that's not the reason.

P.S. proprietary software should be illegal in education. Full stop.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I suppose the question would be the alternative.

Note the devices actively discouraging offline save is a huge asset to schools, since kids screw up a lot, forget their devices and need loaners to get through a day and such. Extra bonus if the device can't be too fun, to avoid them being overly used at home and get broken more.So Chromebook is desirable because they suck so much.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I was thinking of buying a Chromebook for travelling cause it's cheap. I was very close to buying one, but someone told me about the world of used ThinkPads. I ended up buying a used ThinkPad with an AMD R7 4750U and I am so glad I did. It can run literally every game I want lol

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

It depends on your use case. A same cost Chromebook would be much lighter, faster with the things it can do, and over ten hour battery life. As always, a lot depends on cost: a school districts bulk $50 buy will always be horrible but you can get a much nicer “high end” Chromebook for a couple hundred

I don’t game much and considered a Chromebook for basic travel use, but went with a tablet.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

faster with the things it can do

What do you mean by this? Surely you don't mean actual performance, right?

I don't game a ton but having the performance to be able to do so is really nice IMO. The battery life is great as well (like 6+ hours depending on what you do etc), and being able to put any OS I want on it is huge too. I also like how durable it is too.

I feel like if I got a tablet, I'd want a keyboard, and then a mouse too. That'd still be best for portability though, most likely, but it's kind of nice having a full laptop experience.

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