this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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I don't have kids yet but things like these make me wonder how a parent would deal with the kids having a smartphone. If you don't get them one they're going to feel left out as you can be sure as hell that most other kids have one. I'm no psychologist but to me if you buy your kid a smartphone then you basically risk having him/her destroy his/her brain cells and attention span with Tiktok and Snapchat. When I was a kid I did have a cellphone, and I had a PC too, but our house back then didn't have internet and receiving thousands of notifications in a single day was definitely unheard of back then.
That’s a very valid concern. Personally, I think parents should keep their kids away from phones much longer. While I’ve only got a kid on the way, I’m hoping to keep them off of smartphones until high school.
That sounds too long to me. Since later in elementary school (3rd grade), smartphone (and tablet I had at the time) have been really useful tools for me. Sure, I definitely wasted plenty of time on Minecraft videos, but it's not any worse than TV. It helped me learn a lot of what I know now. Without that, I'd have problems getting into any high school. For example, it helped me fly through chemistry and physics like a breeze. Also I learned English, which has unlocked me access to even more info. I wouldn't have been able to pass 7th grade without studying for history, again on my phone.
But of course, there was less crap than now. I am happy I got to grow up with YouTube channels like ExplainingComputers, ElectroBOOM, LGR, Scott Manley, Techmoan, The 8-bit guy, Tom Scott, Veritasium, Ted-Ed, and others I don't remember.
But even before I had smartphone, I could already watch youtube on my Sony Ericsson W200i. That was something. It ran at like 5fps in SD quality, but it worked. And 50MB was basically infinite data.
I'm torn because your cell phone use sounds pretty healthy but I worry others get a more negative experience overall especially with social media.
Also the idea of anyone prior to high-school having cell phones feels odd to me, when I was in school kids worked summer jobs to buy a phone so senior year of high school was a popular year to get into the cell phone game. I didn't get one myself until I completed college and thought I'd need it for work (I didn't). Hardly use it but it is expected to have once you're in your mid 20s making appointments and whatnot. But do people really expect you to have one in elementary school?