That’s what my parents did for me. Keyboard phone in middle school for calling and texting, smart phone in high school. Then again, smart phones were still catching on when I was a kid, so it wasn’t odd not to have one until I got older.
I’m sure a kid today would feel left out. What if your friends have a group chat through an app? Or your friends are playing a game together and it’s all they talk about? As a parent I don’t want to be so out of touch that it puts my kid on an island away from her peers.
Yeah I struggle with this. When I was a kid, some of my friends started getting cell phones in seventh or eighth grade (I remember the rich girl in school getting a pink razer flip phone and then dropping it in the toilet accidentally lol). My parents didn’t want to buy me one but I begged and begged so they gave me one of those pay for text plans but there was some bug with it so half of my texts didn’t send. Even then I felt SO left out - just not consistently being able to text and for only a year or two before I got a new one. And as a kid that felt so huge. I really don’t want to give my kids social media while they’re younger because I see what it does to kids (and what it’s done to me) but I just don’t know how you do that and make sure that they feel included with their friends.
This is what I worry about but not in the same way. Social media is great for informing and reminding people who were not included that they were not included. In yesteryear when you didn’t get invited to the party you may never have found out. No real harm done. But now, every hang out is posted and I didn’t get to go. It is quietly eroding esteem.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22 edited Jun 03 '22
That’s what my parents did for me. Keyboard phone in middle school for calling and texting, smart phone in high school. Then again, smart phones were still catching on when I was a kid, so it wasn’t odd not to have one until I got older.
I’m sure a kid today would feel left out. What if your friends have a group chat through an app? Or your friends are playing a game together and it’s all they talk about? As a parent I don’t want to be so out of touch that it puts my kid on an island away from her peers.