Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

vogue.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 140 posts

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#31

Post by iamnotacrook »

azangru wrote: post #18

I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. Also, smartphone is great at being a digital watch with alarm clock, a audiobook reader, a radio set, etc. You can rebel against the mindless social media generation to your heart's content and stil…

"I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers.

But we had all that growing up 40 years ago. The internet has made people stupider, as a culture. People learn less because you can just look it up. Yes, you can. It's much easier to look stuff up, but that means people are retaining less themselves.

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#34

Post by cylinder »

azangru wrote: post #18

I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. Also, smartphone is great at being a digital watch with alarm clock, a audiobook reader, a radio set, etc. You can rebel against the mindless social media generation to your heart's content and stil…

you cannot imagine an 11 year old not having a smartphone?

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#35

Post by reportgunner »

Kid says this about phones:

1. They’re infantilizing, a set of digital apron strings meant to attach you to your mother. (He was onto something there.)

2. They compromise a boy’s resourcefulness because kids come to rely on the GPS instead of learning Scout skills.

3. They make people trivial.

That's one smart kid.

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#36

Post by MrGilbert »

iamnotacrook wrote: post #31
azangru wrote: post #18

I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. Also, smartphone is great at being a digital watch with alarm clock, a audiobook reader, a radio set, etc. You can rebel against the mindless social media generation to your heart's content and stil…

"I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. But we had all that growing up 40 years ago. The internet has made people stupider, as a culture. People learn less because you can just look it up. Yes, you can. It's much easier to look stuff up,…

> It's much easier to look stuff up, but that means people are retaining less themselves.

It might be easier, but it's not easy. I see people giving up on searches because they are not able to formulate what they are looking for. Maybe that opens a whole different set of problems.

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#39

Post by azangru »

cylinder wrote: post #34
azangru wrote: post #18

I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. Also, smartphone is great at being a digital watch with alarm clock, a audiobook reader, a radio set, etc. You can rebel against the mindless social media generation to your heart's content and stil…

you cannot imagine an 11 year old not having a smartphone?

Oh, I can. After all, I didn't have one when I was 11 :-) It's just that, given an option to have it, I cannot imagine a good reason not to. Unless, of course, you don't trust yourself to not use it in a way you disapprove of.

Re: When Your 11-Year-Old Says No to a Smartphone

#40

Post by azangru »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #21
azangru wrote: post #18

I cannot imagine how it can be a good idea to reject the internet. Avoid social media all you want, but choosing not to have a search engine, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps and so on at your fingertips is just bonkers. Also, smartphone is great at being a digital watch with alarm clock, a audiobook reader, a radio set, etc. You can rebel against the mindless social media generation to your heart's content and stil…

Or, you can buy a standalone alarm clock, a dead-tree book, a standalone radio receiver, etc. for a fraction of the price. Now, I love my smartphone for all the non-social features. But I kind of see how the new generation can see these things as a gateway drug to being sucked into social media and having their minds and hearts ruthlessly exploited for profit. On top of that, it's teenagers we're talking about; teena…

> teenage rebellion isn't usually a paragon of restraint or rationality

It's just that most of the comments in this thread were about rationality :-) They were about how refusing a smartphone is a _smart_ thing to do.

Post reply on HN