Posted on 09/23/2024 7:45:25 AM PDT by Cronos
two concerned parents created the group Smartphone Free Childhood.
what do the pioneering minority of smartphone-free children make of all this?
Annabel, 13 I’m the only person I know who doesn’t have a smartphone. I know they’re quite addictive. Some of my friends are on Snapchat a lot – one of them has 3hr screen-time limit on her phone and she uses up the whole thing with Snapchat. Some of my other friends, when we’re together, scroll on TikTok or YouTube, and I feel quite left out.
Sometimes my friends communicate with people they haven’t met before from a different school, so I think social media is a good way of finding people. But it also has negatives, because you can come into contact with people you don’t want to speak with, although I don’t know anyone who has been bullied online. If there’s a person they don’t know, they usually block them.
One of the positives is that I’m more connected to my friends in the real world, I’m on some WhatsApp groups on my mum’sphone, which helps me connect with, say, the class group chat.
I do feel like having a smartphone would distract me from other things.
Henry, 11 I got a smartphone when I turned 11 and then my mum took it away, because she said my attitude got a lot worse when I’d been looking at it and it caused arguments. She’d tell me to stop and then I wouldn’t stop, because I wanted to complete this level of a game, or finish talking to my friends.
Mikey, 11 I haven’t got a smartphone, because my parents think there are too many dangers. I don’t knowwhat they are; they won’t tell me. I think they should at least tell me what the dangers are.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
You need to be 18 to drink or smoke, and smartphones are addictive too
I forgot there are parental controls on time limits. If I had kids today, that would DEFINITELY be turned on.
You need to be 18 to drink or smoke, and smartphones are addictive too
I was set to call BS on that, but AI says it's true. Used to be a time when many parents let their under 18 kids smoke or drink, but AI says that's illegal in most places.
I wonder what 9th graders would think if Grandpa would tell them that high schools back in the day had a designated smoking area for students.
Mikey, “I think they should at least tell me what the dangers are.”
Mikey, the phone transforms you into a complete arsehole. You know that. The danger is you’ll grow into a teen and adult arsehole.
Even the adults who claim to be in control grab for their little controllers every time it pings because they just HAVE to see what someone has posted.
Does not matter what they are doing they just have to know right now.
That is not a healthy way to be.
I remember when I went to a conference that I'd been attending for decades before getting that smartphone. My phone would alert during the conference. "You have a smartphone now? You've finally joined into the tech?" Yes, it was a little embarrassing.
I still carry a smartphone even into retirement. What I never bought into was all the apps like Twitter/X, Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify, TikTok, and so forth. My screen time is still measured in minutes per month, according to the phone analytics. It's a phone, and a SMS device. Period. Email? I have a desktop computer for that.
Yes, I see people around me glued to their phone. Indeed, I subscribe to the bumper sticker message: "Guns don't kill people; drivers holding cell phones do."
Smart Phones For Stupid People.
The thing is that those are hackable.
Several times now my Grandchildren would have been in immediate extreme danger of harm if they had not had a cell phone. We live in a world where they are no longer safe walking home from school without one... Once a strange man walked into my granddaughter’s classroom and started going through the kids backpacks taking stuff. She called the main desk and told them. Within minutes him and the teacher both were removed. Turned out to be the druggy boyfriend of the temporary teacher and she let him do it. We ain’t in Kansas anymore.
With that said, All devices come with parental controls. Parents just need to actually use them.
The benefits of your kid having a phone outweigh the risks.
IF I HAD KIDS TODAY-—THEY WOULD NOT HAVE A PHONE
“... my Grandchildren would have been in immediate extreme danger of harm if they had not had a cell phone. “
The simple “flip phones” allow only phone calling and texting.
With their smartphones the kids can take a walk with their fingers through the iHood.
Parental controls.
Flip phones are the answer. Can make phone calls and text but are pretty much a pain to do anything else. They still make them, drove an older relative to get a new one this past week. She’d broken the keys on it from texting.
“The benefits of your kid having a phone outweigh the risks.”
Now days absolutely. When was the last time anyone saw a phone booth? Or a cop walking a beat? There is no replacement for good parenting.
I completely agree with the quote in your tag line. Smart phones are absolutely the worst thing that has ever been done to children or childhood.
The stupid people are the ones who don't understand how much a smart phone can do for them.
My 14 yr old has had a phone for about three or four years. He does all manner of things with this phone including being wised up to the often amazing hypocrisy of the Left. He learns history thru his phone as well,all on his own without prompts from me. There is a very wide variety of things he’s come to thru his phone that he often discusses with me.
It helps that his public school seems to be more right wing than Left. Since kindergarten I’ve kept a close eye on what he’s told and taught in school and the nutty leftism just ain’t there. A year or so ago when some bunch of woke faggots were threatening to protest the schools “Thunderbird” mascot the school notified the parents and asked their opinion.
We’re STILL the Thunderbirds. (My contribution to the poll was emphatic.)
Until they prevent a rape or abduction. Or when a phone call to 911 saves a life. Then they are a lifesaving tool. Cell phones have saved a lot of lives... They have saved a lot of children.
We can’t have our cake and eat it too. Priorities have to be weighed. Not everyone can afford to quit their jobs to take their children to school and pick them up. We no longer live in a world of one income households. We live in a world where we need to be in contact with our children 24-7. Not knowing where your child is all the time is neglect. In fact parents have been charged with neglect because they did not know where their children were when they should have.
It is a situation of the lesser of two evils. And a responsible parent in these days of extreme crime and evil keeps tabs on their children to make sure they are safe. We are not in the safe 50s anymore. We live in a world where registered sexual offenders following children to the bus stop need to be videoed for evidence.
It is our new reality, like I said, we are not in Kansas anymore...
I’m old enough to remember what life was like before smart phones. I miss the gatherings and conversations. There may be a few unicorns out there who only use their phones for productive and useful things but for most people they serve as a poor substitute for real human interaction and genuine connection.
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