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What's the right age to get a smartphone?

bbc.com

41–44 of 44 posts

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

#41
At my daughter's school (UK secondary - year 9), they now 'expect' most children to have phones, and will generally ask them to use them if they need to call parents, or to take photos of material useful for homework.

It seems very wrong, but also an easy time-saver for the school when most kids have them anyway.

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

#42
post #36
post #35

One thing I'm considering is getting my kid a laptop when they start asking for a smartphone. They'll be able to engage socially for the most part, but it won't have the "with you every moment of every day" problem. And instead of a device that's mainly geared towards consumption, they'll at least have tool that's designed to to empower its user. And it will run Linux! No kid of mine will grow up thinking proprietary…

If they turn out not to be a programmer, won't using Linux hurt them? Basically every other profession/industry either use windows-only software, or have some kind of policy to use windows (microsoft intune, etc...)

Aim higher! afaik, in academia and research Linux is widely used.

Seriously though, with the trend towards computing in the cloud, I doubt it really matters. Chances are, employees will find some kind of (portable) terminal to the cloud at their desk. SONIC is already offering mind boggling 10Gbps (!) connections to (some) residences in California. Who knows how computer applications will look like in ten, fifteen years.

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

#43

I mine at 58 years old (this year). I'm not sure I'm mature enough for it. It's a clunky, yet seductive slab of glass, what with that persistent lure of connectivity to the world, and access to the sum of all human knowledge. More horsepower than the Cray, without the cooling, raised floor, maintenance or power bills, and yet the NSA doesn't object to me owning one myself... could it be the tracking it affords them?…

This sounds so much like a GPT-3 response....

I probably should have stopped after the first 3 paragraphs, and not gone on about usage. ;-)

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

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Let's not confuse children with teenagers here.
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