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.
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.
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.
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.)