My parents were staunchly no phone when I first hit high school. Shortly after my mom dealt with severe medical issues for 4+ years which in turn made it "necessary" for me to have a phone for communication sake as there were a lot of moving parts. I wasn't supposed to have one till I was 18, instead I had one at 13. Filters and settings are easy to work around. Nearly 11 years later I've gotten rid of my smartphone have taken up a dumb phone. It is truly freeing. My fiancee is on board too which is great because when kids come around in the future we know we want to be as tech free as possible. Happy to come across another substack with this focus.
Thanks for sharing, Hannah! I think it's so great for parents to hear from men & women in their early 20's who are sharing stories like these. A simple dumb phone really is all a teenager would ever need. I'm glad you've found freedom away from a smartphone. What a gift!
Excellent work! I love reading your blog. The longer we can wait to give smartphones to kids, the better.
That being said, I don't think the Sapien Labs study provides evidence to put a blanket recommendation against tablets. That study combines tablets and smartphones into a single category. From Haidt's research, we can get a bit closer to root cause: Smartphones enabled a 24/7 social-media lifestyle, and it is this lifestyle that has been highly damaging for mental health.
I think that high quality educational content on tablets, the order of two hours per week can be beneficial for some kids.
Thanks so much, Chris. The post you reference on After Bible and the JAMA guidelines is what we've been doing for over a decade now, and it hasn't worked well thus far. I appreciate the attempt but it's probably one of the worst things Haidt has posted. Co-viewing with kids has long been the recommendation, but tablets make it almost physically impossible to do this.
Tablet use needs to be considered under the guise of habit formation. I'd caution you with the words of Neil Postman from 1985, "Sesame Street appeared to justify allowing a four- or five-year old to sit transfixed in front of a television screen for unnatural periods of time.... As a television show, and a good one, 'Sesame Street' does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television."
If we apply this to tablet use, then it's fair to say that tablets encourage kids to love personal devices and the next up on their wish list is a smartphone. It's a slippery slope of bad habits and no quantifiable positive outcome.
My parents were staunchly no phone when I first hit high school. Shortly after my mom dealt with severe medical issues for 4+ years which in turn made it "necessary" for me to have a phone for communication sake as there were a lot of moving parts. I wasn't supposed to have one till I was 18, instead I had one at 13. Filters and settings are easy to work around. Nearly 11 years later I've gotten rid of my smartphone have taken up a dumb phone. It is truly freeing. My fiancee is on board too which is great because when kids come around in the future we know we want to be as tech free as possible. Happy to come across another substack with this focus.
Thanks for sharing, Hannah! I think it's so great for parents to hear from men & women in their early 20's who are sharing stories like these. A simple dumb phone really is all a teenager would ever need. I'm glad you've found freedom away from a smartphone. What a gift!
Excellent work! I love reading your blog. The longer we can wait to give smartphones to kids, the better.
That being said, I don't think the Sapien Labs study provides evidence to put a blanket recommendation against tablets. That study combines tablets and smartphones into a single category. From Haidt's research, we can get a bit closer to root cause: Smartphones enabled a 24/7 social-media lifestyle, and it is this lifestyle that has been highly damaging for mental health.
I think that high quality educational content on tablets, the order of two hours per week can be beneficial for some kids.
JAMA Pediatrics issued guidelines on tablets and young children, which is discussed here: https://www.afterbabel.com/p/what-actually-matters-kids-screens
Thanks so much, Chris. The post you reference on After Bible and the JAMA guidelines is what we've been doing for over a decade now, and it hasn't worked well thus far. I appreciate the attempt but it's probably one of the worst things Haidt has posted. Co-viewing with kids has long been the recommendation, but tablets make it almost physically impossible to do this.
Tablet use needs to be considered under the guise of habit formation. I'd caution you with the words of Neil Postman from 1985, "Sesame Street appeared to justify allowing a four- or five-year old to sit transfixed in front of a television screen for unnatural periods of time.... As a television show, and a good one, 'Sesame Street' does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television."
If we apply this to tablet use, then it's fair to say that tablets encourage kids to love personal devices and the next up on their wish list is a smartphone. It's a slippery slope of bad habits and no quantifiable positive outcome.