Jim Schroeder submitted a list of reasons we should hold off on buying our children cell phones. His reasons for keeping smart-phones from tiny hands ranged from distraction and sleep deprivation to accidents and porn:
Distractions galore: The average adolescent female sends more than 4,000 texts per month. That’s approximately 8 texts per waking hour. And it’s not even her day job (school). Question: “Where do they find the time?” Answer: “In the middle of everything else.”
Traffic Accidents: The leading cause of death with teens is traffic accidents. The leading cause of traffic accidents with teens is texting. Drunk driving is second. More than 50% of teens admit texting while driving. Even more likely do.
Classroom Woes: Mobile devices in classrooms, whether it is the ring, buzz, or all the other potential diversions, are clearly associated with decreased learning, retention, and efficiency.
Your DC contributor came up in this ‘infancy’ stage of cell phones, in fact I didn’t get one until I had my drivers license. Maybe now that practice wouldn’t work anymore, but then what would be a reasonable age to give our kids cell phones?
Growing up in a era before we had Google on our hips at all times, as most of our readers have, we learned problem solving skills and depended on our parents for information and guidance. Now when our youth have questions or curiosities they just turn to their phones and ask the search engines. Does it seem like Google could be replacing parent figures?
