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What's the right age to get a smartphone?

bbc.com

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Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#21

Post by Auracle »

milchek wrote: post #13
guywithahat wrote: post #2

> In particular, while there is no overarching evidence showing that owning a phone or using social media is harmful to children's wellbeing in general I suppose if you don't look for something, it's impossible to find

No overarching evidence? Are they for real? I feel like there have been many studies over the years into the negative effects of social media on children. Here is one i just googled: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dangers-of-social-media-f... I would imagine that many of us here (being this is HN) are off social media like FB or Twitter and have felt the positive impact this has made. Anecdotally, my wife was a h…

A do high school senior photography, so I tend to get tagged when they post photos.

Let me tell you, there’s an opposite side of that coin. I’ve yet to see a girl post photos without tens (or hundreds) of comments on it telling her how pretty she is, worded a billion different ways.

Yes, even with the girls that actually aren’t pretty. It’s nice to see, and I’m sure it makes them feel great.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#22

Post by worthless-trash »

govg wrote: post #16
milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

All of their friends are on social media, all you do by taking their phones away is that they're no longer able to talk to their friends and engage in content / share information in the same way as all of their peers do worldwide. Phones and social media definitely have drawbacks like you mention, but the world has clearly made its peace with that. Using a phone is pretty fundamental to how people interact / engage /…

Children have poor decision making ability, you cant educate them. Teenagers and just under, perhaps, but children no.

You may assume or think your children are special snowflakes where they can be taught this (as children) but their underdeveloped brain has shown through multiple generations that they will continue to make poor decisions.

Your argument rests on "everyone else is doing it", which is not a strong enough reason.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#23

Post by Borrible »

The answer depends very much on who you are, who benefits from and who is in charge of yours and their life.

The answer may be different for a single mom with three kids and four jobs from mine or yours for a variety of reasons.

Some would even say, you can't introduce customers to sweets early enough...

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#24

Post by n_ary »

pgcj_poster wrote: post #3

I don't think anyone under 120 is responsible enough for a smartphone.

I don't think at 120, anyone has the energy or patience to battle with a magic-slab.

Jokes, aside, 18+ is fine, as they will have more responsibilities to utilise the magic-slab for something useful(calendar, communication, meeting, information sharing, e-mails, calls, documentation etc..) over entertainment-only(social media death scrolling).

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#25

Post by n_ary »

warinukraine wrote: post #6
biggerChris wrote: post #4

It depends. If your child age 12-16 years shows interest in programming. Purchase all the smartphones for them to learn to code. Or a raspberry pi.

A smartphone to learn how to code? Not sure if sarcastic....

While I am not a child, I use my smartphone to read through a lot of (e)books on my daily 2h+ commute and it helps me a lot to avoid awkward staring contest with random strangers. I always re-stock books from O'Reilly and No-Starch press my device over weekends for the next week to read.

In summary, my smartphone helps me 10h+ reading while avoiding equal amount of awkward moments with strangers.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#26

Post by theonlybutlet »

worthless-trash wrote: post #22
govg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of their friends are on social media, all you do by taking their phones away is that they're no longer able to talk to their friends and engage in content / share information in the same way as all of their peers do worldwide. Phones and social media definitely have drawbacks like you mention, but the world has clearly made its peace with that. Using a phone is pretty fundamental to how people interact / engage /…

Children have poor decision making ability, you cant educate them. Teenagers and just under, perhaps, but children no. You may assume or think your children are special snowflakes where they can be taught this (as children) but their underdeveloped brain has shown through multiple generations that they will continue to make poor decisions. Your argument rests on "everyone else is doing it", which is not a strong enou…

It inhibits them from speaking to their friends, how did you talk to your friends? On the home phone? That doesn't exist anymore and in any case they all text these days, they won't take a call

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#27

Post by theonlybutlet »

jhbadger wrote: post #20
milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

I'd agree, but I'm probably older than you (52) and remember the pressure to have cool clothes like Members Only jackets in the 1980s. Smartphones are the modern version. It's easy to stand by as a parent and say "you don't need this, son" but an adult (or even a college student) can buck trends and seem all the cooler for it, but it doesn't work that way in high school or younger.

Its a means of communication though not a nicety, kids don't have home phones and youngsters are averse to speaking on the phone so their friends probably won't answer.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#28

Post by THENATHE »

I think as every year passes we get closer to a point where younger and younger kids need a cell phone.

I grew up till about 12 without one, so I can quite distinctly remember a time without. And even then, I didn’t get a smartphone until like 14. “Mobile culture” didn’t really take off till my last 2 years in HS.

A lot of being a kid nowadays involves interacting with others on these devices. But at the same time, we are losing what it mean to be a kid during the rest of human history.

We give kids smartphones early and they miss out on a time without knowing about the constant, everlasting connection to information and social networks/media, but if we give them the phones too late, they are substantially behind their peers socially.

I think the right answer is “when all their friends have them”, and then to encourage them to only use a smart subset of apps (discord, texting, maybe snapchat) and dump the rest.

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#29

Post by clows »

n_ary wrote: post #25
warinukraine wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A smartphone to learn how to code? Not sure if sarcastic....

While I am not a child, I use my smartphone to read through a lot of (e)books on my daily 2h+ commute and it helps me a lot to avoid awkward staring contest with random strangers. I always re-stock books from O'Reilly and No-Starch press my device over weekends for the next week to read. In summary, my smartphone helps me 10h+ reading while avoiding equal amount of awkward moments with strangers.

sounds like you haven't tried tiktok yet?

Re: What's the right age to get a smartphone?

#30

Post by ksec »

milchek wrote: post #14

A better question: why does a child need a smartphone? I don’t want this to be a “back in my day” old man yells at cloud type of rant, but seriously, why? What I’ve observed, often, is the child requests a smartphone because someone else at school has one, or the “cool kids” have them. Parents don’t want their children to be outcasts, so, they give in and buy the phone. The parents then have to contend with managing…

Which is why I wish primary school ( up to age of 11 ) would outright ban Smartphone.

Above that is hard. There no way you could ban smartphone at age 15/16. But then you end up having 15/16+ students having phone while the lower age in the same school from 12-14 not having one.

I seriously think Smartphone does more harm than good for Child. But Tablet, in a controlled environment, are many times better.

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