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I know no kid under 15 who has one (although I know only a handful of kids).
So ... not a reliable sample for study.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coloradomom22
If finances are not an issue get them smartphones. Every kid that age has one and it's the main way kids connect socially. You can protest and fume over how ridiculous that is, how you grew up without one, etc, but it doesn't change the fact that it's the norm for kids today. Every generation has something new that their parents didn't have. Being the one kid whose parent is a dud and bans them from having it because they think it's ridiculous is hard. I know, because my parents were this way. Even though money was no object for them I wasn't allowed to have a pair of designer jeans or cable.
We got our daughter an Iphone in 6th grade even though she never asked for it. She struggled a bit socially (she's on the younger side) and honestly having a smartphone has helped her greatly with making friends. They do group texts about silly things and even keep each other connected with what homework is due. We monitor all social media and so far there have been no problems.
I love this post ^^ because it's practical AND compassionate.
Of course not EVERY kid or adult has a cell phone. But I think a lot of people who are SO opposed to iPhones need to double-check their reasoning.
If you are such an individualist that you can't fathom wanting to be like your peers, this maybe isn't your topic.
If you don't even have kids or aren't even around a lot of kids this age but just want to justify your political philosophy, P&OC is ------------------> way.
Honestly your opinion is really not worth much. You know very few kids and does not even sound like you have young children.
Apple stock does not make a phone call or do the multitude of thins my apple phone does for me.
My friend has a cheap pay as you go phone. The photo quality sucks and it is way newer than my iPhone. You also can't screenshot things. Which I find makes the phone useless to me. When I say I want a picture sent to me, with details of a tag, I want to clearly be able to read the tag.
Photo quality depends on the camera in the phone. Just like any other phone, smartphone or not, you can get a higher or lower quality camera. I took pics of granite slabs at the granite warehouse & emailed them to myself. I could see the little striads and colors and hues of the granite. Excellent quality. Better than some smartphone quality.
I also sent pics (taken on my cellphone) of a ding in my WHITE car to a ding-repairer. It's hard to see dings on a white car, esp. in a photo. But he could see it clearly, and sent me back an estimate. IT DEPENDS ON THE CAMERA YOU GET, NOT THE PHONE. And that has nothing to do with whether it's a smartphone or not.
People seem to have fallen for the falsehood that smartphones are something different from cell phones. They are not. They are fancier CELL phones with a different operating system. But their basic functions are the same, cameras are the same, they ALL use the same cell towers.
A friend was surprised when he asked me if I had reception wherever we were (he did...he has an iPhone). I told him that well, of course. I was pinging off the same cell tower he was. He was totally surprised. He seemed to think that smartphones have, what...their own cell towers? LOL.
You wants stats? Okay:
68% of adults have smartphones. 32% do not. So it's true that not ALL adults have smartphones.
56% of children 8 to 12 have a CELLPHONE (not smartphone).
On average, children are 12.1 when they receive their first mobile device.
Among children 8 years of age and younger, 21 percent use smartphones. (note that they "use" them; it doesn't say they "own" them; they may use the family smartphone.)
37 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a smartphone. Kids Wireless Use Facts
So the stats show that not all kids have smartphones. In fact, the stats show just the opposite, as I said. Statistics don't change depending on whether a person has one or two or ten kids. Stats are stats.
But you don't need stats to tell you that, if you just think about it. There are millions of kids in the country. Obviously, all kids would not have smartphones or even plain cellphones.
People who have expendable income and buy their kids a lot of things sometimes forget that not everyone is like that. My nephew just turned 14 and got his first phone. He got a CELLPHONE. Not a smartphone. He does, however, use his grandpa's smartphone for browsing the internet and helping to make travel plans and gps.
Cellphones are not "dumb," either. People I think are thinking about the 1980s cellphones. The new cellphones do almost everything smartphones do...their OS is different is the main difference. And the cost. Camera, texting, alarms, calendars & calculators, cell towers to ping off of....all these things are the same, if you choose to buy a similar high end or mid-level phone in either.
People seem to have fallen for the falsehood that smartphones are something different from cell phones. They are not. They are fancier CELL phones with a different operating system. But their basic functions are the same, cameras are the same, they ALL use the same cell towers.
Eh, kind of. Modern smartphones are essentially tablet computers with a cell phone built in as well. They're not something different so much as something additional. One can quibble over what constitutes a "computer" nowadays, with everything using microprocessors, but there's definitely a large functionality gap between a flip phone and a smartphone, even if it's a nicer flip phone.
Quote:
You wants stats? Okay:
68% of adults have smartphones. 32% do not. So it's true that not ALL adults have smartphones.
56% of children 8 to 12 have a CELLPHONE (not smartphone).
On average, children are 12.1 when they receive their first mobile device.
Among children 8 years of age and younger, 21 percent use smartphones. (note that they "use" them; it doesn't say they "own" them; they may use the family smartphone.)
37 percent of teenagers, ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a smartphone. Kids Wireless Use Facts
So the stats show that not all kids have smartphones. In fact, the stats show just the opposite, as I said. Statistics don't change depending on whether a person has one or two or ten kids. Stats are stats.
Did you click on the links to see their sources? I click on a few and the most recent I saw was early 2015, but some were as out of date as 2013.
In my area it's very common, rapidly increasingly so, for teens and preteens to have smartphones, usually hand-me-downs from family members who have upgraded. It's not an affluent area, but home internet service is not widely available due to how remote we are, so it's pretty common for people to use a smartphone or wireless-enabled tablet in lieu of a regular home computer - the cell phone companies have greatly outpaced the internet providers at expanding their coverage. Doesn't hurt that a lot of these mobile devices are more affordable and/or more easily financed than a laptop/desktop, either. The local district has a bring-your-own-device policy so kids do use them for school.
Today's 14-year-olds never had postage stamps you could lick. They've always had self-adhesive stamps, if they ever felt inclined to use snail mail. Different generations have different mindsets.
Tried to rep you... seems like I've rep-ed you recently & can't now ... you go!!!
I read about half-way through this thread and just have to say something. Are we all getting to be a little like sheeple, each following the last fellow into the smart-phone store? The level of outright anger I read from those who have to those who don't have or don't want to have is pretty high. Whatever happened to finding your own way to do things and conduct your life?
I know, just another level of must-haves. In the 70's and 80's it was rebock tennis shoes. Gone were the no-name tennis shoes. One had to have at least some of those things just to fit in. Now it's smart phones. But what I don't get is the absolute pressure about it.
We're grandparents and use the technology we want to use. I have an expanded keyboard phone and DH has a flip phone. It works for us just fine. But my family and my grandkids make fun of us to the point where it just isn't even polite. Where is all this pressure coming from? And who says that having a smart phone makes a kid superior?
I do get the safety factor, there are no pay phones. I had to find one a couple years ago and it was $1+ of coins to make the call once I finally found one. But the peer pressure around this stuff is just obnoxious. Yes, it affects us older folk too. I really feel for these kids growing up like this. They may be learning technology, but I don't believe they're learning great communication skills.
Are we all getting to be a little like sheeple, each following the last fellow into the smart-phone store?
Where is all this pressure coming from?
The middle-school years are the time when children begin emotionally separating from their parents.
In the quest to find out who they are, which is a scary process, they look around at other groups they want to fit in with, see people they want to emulate and then do the things those people do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Answers
Whatever happened to finding your own way to do things and conduct your life?
People still do that, but at different rates.
IMHO, the people here who respond with such vehemence to the so-called lemming effect of smart phones probably did not/would not fit in as easily during their younger years and worked extra hard to assert their true selves.
That would also address why they are SO opposed to their own offspring following the crowd as well.
We ended up deciding that they could get phones when they start junior high school. At that point they will be taking on more personal responsibilities and independence, so I think a phone will be a nice trade-off.
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