Post: #26

I don't think these devices are as destructive as social media in general.

I suppose banning social media is about as likely as banning iPhones for anyone under 16 so why not wish big? Frankly these days most <25 year olds are no more adult than I was at 16 and I think these devices are largely to blame for that, so it really doesn't matter if you banned people having them until they turned 16. Even the people who were 16 when this became a thing have been fucked up by it.

A smart phone without social media is basically just a phone that's a TV and a camera too. Not so bad.

Unfortunately both democratic and free-market values retain the right to utterly destroy their host so none of this can be solved under either democracy or capitalism.

Post: #27

If you deal with kids under 6 I can guarantee that if you give them the option of playing outside with you or sitting on their phone, they will choose you.

This is as much a result of parents being emotionally unavailable just as much as it is kids taking a 'perfect pill' in the form of a device.

Post: #28

My cousin takes away her 13-14 year old sons phone at night because otherwise he would stay up all night messaging people, they give it back to him in the morning but he probably has some workaround and uses an ipad or whatever, maybe even a device that he bought secretly.

Post: #29

I persuaded my 14 year old niece not to use social media. We had the following conversation a couple of months ago:

Her: I want to get Instagram
Me: Why?
Her: I don't know why, but all of my friends have it
Me: OK, but why do you want it?
Her: I don't really, but everyone else has it
Me: OK, well how would you feel if if you put a picture of yourself online, where you thought you looked nice, and people called you fat or ugly?
Her: I would feel bad
Me: Well how do you stop do that happening?
Her: Not put pictures of yourself online?
Me: Exactly.
Her: OK, I won't

Her older brother got a Facebook account a few years ago. I received an alert from Facebook, so I sent him a message similar to the one below:

"Do not ever post a comment or put photos on Facebook. They will be there for other people to see, and in future, when you are looking for job, somebody could dig them up and use them against you. Is that a situation you want to be in for the rest of your life?"

He has never posted a single comment on Facebook.

I know somebody with 3 sons aged between 2 to 6. At his house the TV is almost never on, let alone social media. He expects his kids to keep each other busy, and they only get to watch TV as a reward.

Post: #30

Freedom is the KEY
Noone should say how parents have to teach their kids, if you want them to spend they whole day with mobiles or videogames, thats fine...
If they want their kids to not have mobile phones thats fine...

The only problem is that some parents can be really bad parents...but not everyone is like that