this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
194 points (95.8% liked)
Technology
59091 readers
4728 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yes, that's the FOMO angle, but kids find a way.
Growing up, most of my friends had phones, and while I missed stuff, I went to most of the parties and had good friends. My sister has teenagers, and they have strong friend networks and whatnot. Good friends will accommodate you.
But communication is a small part of what kids do on their phones. A lot of it is "preparation," like following TikTok trends so they're up on what's currently popular. There's almost no positives here, only negatives if you don't spend your time the same way your peers do. If they don't have a phone at all, they'll blame their parents, but it's not the failing of the individual. I'm totally willing to be the "bad guy" if it means my kids aren't being peer pressured to do things that aren't beneficial to them. They'll still have access to tech, but only during limited times at home.
Good friends will work around your lack of access to a phone. I absolutely think the negatives outweigh the positives here, so I'm not letting my kids have a phone, it's not worth subjecting them to addiction and peer pressure. To me, it's like smoking (which was still cool when I was a kid), it just impacts your mental health instead of physical health.