Should kids have smartphones?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

The thread title reminds me of CU. "Kids N Drugs", "Kids N Sex", "Kids N Sliding Down A Mountain Of Busted Beer Bottles On Your Belly"...

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The thread title reminds me of CU. "Kids N Drugs", "Kids N Sex", "Kids N Sliding Down A Mountain Of Busted Beer Bottles On Your Belly"...

Really? I only remember him as eDemocracy and hijacking the Bar and Grill. And talking about being an oppressed Englishman in Scotland.

[Ben Shapiro]

Not enough Nostalgia, and advocates of porn by candlelight in this thread.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

The thread title reminds me of CU. "Kids N Drugs", "Kids N Sex", "Kids N Sliding Down A Mountain Of Busted Beer Bottles On Your Belly"...

Really? I only remember him as eDemocracy and hijacking the Bar and Grill. And talking about being an oppressed Englishman in Scotland.

And him trying to show that Roger was in fact the horrible bastard out to get him and ruin Discordia via youtube video where he showed nothing more than the fact that he and Roger were PM, no content, scroll past the whole thing and when I mentioned that nothing was readable he said that our minds were made up for team Roger.

Well, yeah, at that point, my mind was made up.

Bear, you missed and awesome ass meltdown there.

[Ben Shapiro]

Links plz if possible?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Links plz if possible?

That's some dredging. You may also have to ask Faust since he runs the server at Eris Bar and Grille, or ask hirley0, who currently runs it. And well hirley0. Love the guy, but that's some cryptography sometimes and he may well have deleted the whole thing.

Long story short, EB&G is usually a curse, why it was eventually handed over to hirley0 who exists outside of time and space.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

http://www.erisbarandgrill.com/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I sometimes forget that happened, that it was so epic, and the amazing outcome.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I sometimes forget that happened, that it was so epic, and the amazing outcome.

Total. Friggin. Meltdown.

[Cain]

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[Dildo Argentino]

Okay, so let me try for the core of the argument: in a world of ubiquitous computing and networking, involuntary boredom and lostness are being eradicated. For a number of generations, they were definitive experiences for many (I'd even say most) kids. It is quite easy to see this change as an improvement, after all, being bored and being lost are usually not pleasant. But is it also justified (at least to some degree) to see it as a deprivation? Does having to learn to cope with involuntary boredom and lostness add a sort of resilience to personalities that is lost in a universe of instantly available, infinitely variable stimulation in unlimited quantities? I have this tentative feeling (which may be an artifact of my perspective or something a little more objective than that), that this change has a tendency to make people shallow, emotionally disengaged. Is it possible to have cathartic positive experiences without ever having cathartic negative ones?

[Reginald Ret]

Okay, so let me try for the core of the argument: in a world of ubiquitous computing and networking, involuntary boredom and lostness are being eradicated. For a number of generations, they were definitive experiences for many (I'd even say most) kids. It is quite easy to see this change as an improvement, after all, being bored and being lost are usually not pleasant. But is it also justified (at least to some degree) to see it as a deprivation? Does having to learn to cope with involuntary boredom and lostness add a sort of resilience to personalities that is lost in a universe of instantly available, infinitely variable stimulation in unlimited quantities? I have this tentative feeling (which may be an artifact of my perspective or something a little more objective than that), that this change has a tendency to make people shallow, emotionally disengaged. Is it possible to have cathartic positive experiences without ever having cathartic negative ones?

Good point.
Combined with the decreasing number of parents that know how to say NO this leads to a generation that is incapable of tolerating frustration. You think the number of man-children around is bad now? hah! just you wait!

[Dildo Argentino]

Our responsibility as the older generation to teach them to be able to use this technology unsupervised. If they don't it's our failure, as parents. It's basically the same as the time I got a bus pass from school and was given free rein, and didn't get into any trouble. My parents may have screwed up in some areas (whose doesn't?), but they at least taught me to not get myself in a bad spot if they weren't looking.

You are prefectly right. I guess my question is how to do that right with smartphones. It's quite clear that you wouldn't start teaching power-tools before good hand-to-eye coordination and concentration skills are in place, probably around 5-6, with constant supervision. Learning to drive a powered vehicle, also probably not before then. Smartphones (ubiquitous data and networking in any form) seems harmless by comparison. I am not sure it is. The effect may be more subtle than lost fingers and major injuries, but I think there is an effect, and I'd like to see more clearly what it is. By the way, this is coming from a guy whose three-year-old daughter is quite capable of navigating an iPhone and does so quite a lot, and whose older kids all have networked computers and two have smartphones and the rest could have them if they asked for them.

Holist, kudos. I understand your ambivalence, but this is a good thread.

Thanks for that!

[AFK]

Bad idea.  It is another avenue for unsupervised and unmonitored access to the internet.  Especially given all of the Agrippa's that use the internet.

ROCKS AND BROKEN GLASS.  THAT'S ALL THEY NEED.

No, but they also don't need to be easier targets for the pedophiles that trawl the internet.  Giving a kid a smartphone does that, among other issues.  I'm not talking about your 17 and 18 year olds, certainly whn a kid gets to an age where they are driving and getting a job, I think there is certainly merit.  But your younger teens and tweens, it seems a little sketchy to me.  Get them just a plain ole cellphone without access to the net so they can still make a call in emergencies, but they don't, IMO, need smartphones.

[Demolition Squid]

Please explain to me how having a smartphone makes it any easier than having access to the internet in general.

The only reason not to do it that I can see would be that it makes the kid a slightly higher value target for muggers. Though honestly, I can't imagine it being that big an increase in the decision of whether or not to attack a child. It isn't delicious candy, after all.