Live data from Hacker News

Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

abcnews.go.com

71–80 of 108 posts

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#72
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "smartphone usage" merely a proxy for "social media usage"? When I got my first smartphone almost two decades ago as a 16yo, I used it mostly to play with the system, write my own UIs, debug system daemon issues, tinker with bootloaders and ended up contributing to a community distro for it. It was a fun computer in my pocket that taught me a lot and a massive upgrade over earlier phones where I had to use Opera M…

It is and it is an accurate proxy. 99.9% of smartphone users are not doing hackerman stuff on the phone.

I use my smartphone for primarily for: email, phone calls, text messages, second-factor authentication, calendar, camera and photo viewing.

I don't use it for social media.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#73
post #43
post #5

I don't know many children who are 13 today and don't have a smartphone - in fact it was quite a common thing even a decade ago - how do you even control for this

My 13 year old has a phone. Most of the apps are blocked. Messages is open, and we tweak based on expectations how much he has access per day, and when. Right now it's 8:30pm to 9pm (so after sports and homework). He can call and text me and my wife anytime of the day. Thankfully the school bans phone usage, so it's not a lot. A handful of his friends have no phone. Most have, and all apps are accessible (not sure ho…

I’ve been told from some folks who work on child safety features and are passionate about the space that the features are often ignored by parents anyways :/

That may be part of the reason for difficulty of configuration. You might be in a small cohort of people actually using them. That cohort should be larger.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#74
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and it is an accurate proxy. 99.9% of smartphone users are not doing hackerman stuff on the phone.

Looking at sibling comments going "it doesn't affect me cause I browse social media on big screen", it seems like using this proxy brings more confusion than good.

Individuals on Hacker News of all sites bringing up their individual usage patterns as a counterpoint says nothing about the applicability of this proxy.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#75
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and it is an accurate proxy. 99.9% of smartphone users are not doing hackerman stuff on the phone.

I use my smartphone for primarily for: email, phone calls, text messages, second-factor authentication, calendar, camera and photo viewing. I don't use it for social media.

You are the 0.01%

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#76

In the US, we restrict driving to around age 16, alcohol consumption to 18, voting to 18, and tobacco consumption to 21. Then there are industry-applied age ratings, like the MPA’s PG-13, R, and NC-17 ratings. Barbiturates and amphetamines we’re once available without a prescription. There’s official/unofficial wiggle room, but there are limits. For example, if you live on a farm, you may be driving on the farm befor…

Driving is restricted because of responsibility (same way marriage and contracts in general require someone legally responsible) Porn, alcohol, tobacco and gambling is cultural/religious, the same way The Prohibition happened in the US, or all alcohol and gambling is banned in hard Islamic countries and adult women are mandatory veiled. It's pretty interesting to see where a smartphone ban would fit as a category.

I think alcohol and tobacco used to be banned for cultural reasons but there’s pretty clear research now pointing to bad outcomes for early drug use. 21 is still high so some of the cultural element remains but I wouldn’t consider those two entirely ungrounded in reason.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#77
post #43
post #5

I don't know many children who are 13 today and don't have a smartphone - in fact it was quite a common thing even a decade ago - how do you even control for this

My 13 year old has a phone. Most of the apps are blocked. Messages is open, and we tweak based on expectations how much he has access per day, and when. Right now it's 8:30pm to 9pm (so after sports and homework). He can call and text me and my wife anytime of the day. Thankfully the school bans phone usage, so it's not a lot. A handful of his friends have no phone. Most have, and all apps are accessible (not sure ho…

Heh. My son found that deleting and reinstalling an app resets the time limit.

Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are the worst. They are all blocked on our kids’ wifi as well as their phones.

I would forgo all the benefits of a smart phone if it meant my kids could grow up without one.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#78
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at sibling comments going "it doesn't affect me cause I browse social media on big screen", it seems like using this proxy brings more confusion than good.

Individuals on Hacker News of all sites bringing up their individual usage patterns as a counterpoint says nothing about the applicability of this proxy.

And your comments say nothing about whether applying this proxy is useful.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#79

How’s this compare to computer/internet usage? I’ve been chronically online most years since age 7 but didn’t get a smartphone until 22 or so.

It probably makes a difference that the internet of ~15 years ago was healthier to use than the half-dozen websites that encompass the entire internet for most people today. Attention-optimizing algorithms and infinite scrolling are some of the worst inventions that have come to the internet since the pop-up ad.

Re: Kids who own smartphones before age 13 have worse mental health outcomes: Study

#80
post #42
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep debating trying to go full-dumbphone, but I'm confident what would happen is that it would work great until I need a specific thing for whatever reason, and I'd have to buy an Android or iPhone, and then I'd be forced to carry around two devices and potentially have two separate cell phone plans. This seems like a pain in the ass. But I don't dispute that waking up in the morning to a bunch of things competing…

I've been using a featureful dumb phone (Sunbeam F1 Pro, Juniper) for a few weeks now. Before this I've been using an iPhone since iPhone 6s, and before that an Android phone since Nexus 4. My new phone runs BasicOS, an Android remix that removes Google Play, removes all web browsers, and comes with a suite of custom default apps built to nice with physical buttons (T9-style). My phone has calls, SMS, MMS, email (IMA…

Ngl, lately it feels like some of my projects are born out of sheer aggravation more than anything else. I get the impulse.

Can confirm; this approach helped me a lot too. There is so much I can't do so being aware of its minutiae does nothing for me except make it worse. I still keep up with local news, because it is far more likely to make immediate impact.

Post reply on HN