https://theoutline.com/post/7355/even-an-ape-can-profile-stalk-someone-on-instagram?utm_source=&zd=1&zi=q44x773tA thing I consistently hear about from parents of infants/toddlers/young children is how eerily silent they fall when you hand them any iPhone-like screen. Even kids who are pre-verbal intuitively understand the swiping and tapping actions; the opiate-like effect takes over, regardless of age. But of those parents, almost all feel some trepidation about zonking their kid out with a device, or the possibility that they are ingraining the same habits they themselves they feel guilty about before their child can even form memories.
Some parents, having seen other parents’ kids’ pupils dilate to the size of their eyeballs when they get their hands on an iDevice, strenuously avoid letting their kids even know what they are. I don’t envy the choice many parents seem to face several times a day between an irate, screaming baby and one who is contentedly massaging the brain matter in his soft head with an iPad.
This was what I thought of when I saw this viral video of a chimpanzee serenely using Instagram to stalk someone’s profile, precisely the way the rest of us do: thoughtfully scrolling, selecting a photo, reflecting upon it, not interacting with it in any way, swiping back, and continuing to scroll. This is almost certainly not the first time anyone has handed a chimp a smartphone, but who did this? Is this a good idea? Why give this chimp FOMO? Will he want to be an influencer now?
The video reinforces a weird intuition I (we all) have that there is just something about how we take to this stuff so fluidly that screams we should be careful with it.
