The other day I mentioned that I was considering letting my thirteen year old get a cell phone. After reading [b]Ross Douthat's[/b] recent column on the need for a temperance movement to resist the [i]“tyrant in our pocket”[/i] I have changed my mind, and for the time being she doesn't need one – at least not until Verizon, et al start offering [i]“great 'voice only' plans for minors.”[/i]
As a member of the school board of her Catholic school I have always been resistant to expending precious money on electronics. [b]Douthat[/b] has convinced me to keep digging in my heels:
[i]“Then there are the starker steps. Get computers — all of them — out of elementary schools, where there is no good evidence that they improve learning. Let kids learn from books for years before they’re asked to go online for research; let them play in the real before they’re enveloped by the virtual.”[/i]
Our family is going to be ahead of the curve:
[i]“I suspect that versions of these ideas will be embraced within my lifetime by a segment of the upper class and a certain kind of religious family. But the masses will still be addicted, and the technology itself will have evolved to hook and immerse — and alienate and sedate — more completely and efficiently. But what if we decided that what’s good for the Silicon Valley overlords who send their kids to a low-tech Waldorf school is also good for everyone else?”[/i]
See [i]“Resist the Internet”[/i] by [b]Ross Douthat[/b] @ [i]The New York Times[/i] (March 11, 2017) [c=#BF0000]http://nyti.ms/2nPb4kF[/c]
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You can block text and data on a kid's phone with Verizon. In fact they used to have a phone that the parent programmed to allow up to 3 emergency numbers. That was all they could call. You might want to check on that if she plays sports and such. My niece was the last one on her team at 13 to get her phone. She would use her coach's phone often but if anything changes with us picking up or whatever after practices it was harder because the coach didn't bring her phone in to the gym.
PS: I think you have it right in delaying the phone though. I hate when people ignore me in favor of their phone.
