Should young children have smart phones?
The other day when driving home from class at around 2:30 PM there was a group of grade school kids walking home from school. Four out of those five kids in that group were holding iPhones and talking about how they were going to text their friends.
There are two things about that situation that irked me.
One, These kids not only have cell phones at such a young age, but smart phones. When I was growing up I did not get a cell phone until I was a junior in high school. That cell phone was a flip phone that when I wanted to text on it I would have to type in T-9! So not only do these 8 and 9 year olds have iPhones but they all had iPhone 6's or later! These phones are valued at anywhere from roughly $500-$1000. The first time I had a phone with such a value it wasn't until I started working at a job where I got a discount on one and bought it myself. I think it is wrong for a kid to be given a device with such a high value at such a young age. I think possessions like that should be earned to a certain degree.
Regardless these kids have these phones, so what does that mean? Growing up if I wanted to see what my fiends were up to I either had to pick up the home phone and call their house and ask their parents if they were home. Then if there was no answer on the phone I would have to walk or ride my bike down to their house to see if they could hang out. It was the same concept if you wanted to simply talk with your friends growing up. you weren't allowed to talk to them on the phone for too long because your parents didn't want you to tie up the phone line, so instead you would have to go down to their house or have then come over.
Today kids simply text or tweet their friends and can go days at a time without seeing them in person. Instead of hanging out with their friends in person they are hanging out them in the digital realm. Kids arent getting outside anymore and spending time with their friends their. I cannot recall the last time I have seen a group of kids in my neighborhood outside at night playing night games. Instead they are inside texting each other or talking to each other online.
I feel bad for kids in this generation because they are missing out on the way that we grew up. Getting to spend time outside and not focus on what is on their phones 24-7
I completely agree with you here. I absolutely loved my childhood. I spent every moment I could outside with my neighbors. All of our parents had to drag us in the house to eat dinner. We would then scarf down our food and go right back outside. We would be outside until it got dark and even then we would go hangout in someone's basement and play card games or something. With the way the world is now, kids will never have that. And if kids do have that, bless their parents for raising them that way.
ReplyDeleteT-9, haha. I bet if we asked anyone that is 5 years younger than us, they wouldn't know what we are talking about.
I agree here too. growing up i never had a cell phone. if i wanted to talk to my friends i had to like you, call their house or go over to their house. and if i wanted to stay after school i had to use the pay phone in the school or trying to use the office phone.
ReplyDeleteOther thing that i feel that children shouldn't have is smartphones. i kinda get that parents want give their kids cell phones for safety, but they don't really need a smartphone?? i didn't get my first iPhone until i was 17 or 18. but what shows how things are different for kids these days, are that my younger brother and i got our first iPhone that Christmas... he was in 5th grade at that time....