"The Wait Until 8th pledge empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. Let’s protect the elementary and middle school years from the distractions and the dangers of a smartphone. Banding together helps decrease the pressure to have a phone at an early age. Ten years old is the average age children get their first smartphone. You can change this!
Smartphones are distracting and potentially dangerous for children yet are widespread in elementary and middle school because of unrealistic social pressure and expectations to have one.
These devices are quickly changing childhood for children. Playing outdoors, spending time with friends, reading books and hanging out with family is happening a lot less to make room for hours of snap chatting, instagramming, and catching up on YouTube.
Parents feel powerless in this uphill battle and need community support to help delay the ever-evolving presence of the smartphone in the classroom, social arena and family dinner table. Link arms with other parents to wait until at least the end of eighth grade for a smartphone!"
This needs a majority of other kids to also no have smartphone. If there only a few kids whose parents decided to not give them smartphones, you’re kinda subjecting them to a childhood/teenhood without friendship.
Source: I kinda just became a loner because I didn’t have a phone and my peers were in groupchats and sharing memes. Thanks, Mom; and Thanks, Society 🙃
Edit: And since some schools are underfunded and doesn’t have enough chromebooks for everyone, teachers would make kids use their phone to do classwork (on google classroom). Not giving your kid a smartphone can be detrimental, its not gonna work unless the entire school admin is on board with it.
Your grades can literally drop from not having a smartphone. Insanity, I know.
“This needs a majority of other kids to also no have smartphone.”
100% agree, that’s the whole point of the organization and other orgs like it. They founded it to raise awareness and to get families to support each other. A group mindset against phones in childhood and early adolescence, which I agree is much more difficult if you’re the only one without one.
I mean, I would’ve probably lost any friends I would’ve made after highschool ends, so I don’t think it was like a huge loss either way. But like not having friends during highschool kinda contributed to my depression.
Like this comment is not me complaining about not having a phone, its more of a “why the fuck is everyone in my school constantly on their phone” complaint.
Its not the “not having a phone” part that made me sad, but the social exclusion. Get what I’m saying?
So if this “phone ban” thing is gonna happen, it has to be either all or nothing, not some half-assed “voluntary” shit where half of the class is pressured by the other half for not having a phone.
And since some schools are underfunded and doesn’t have enough chromebooks for everyone, teachers would make kids use their phone to do classwork (on google classroom). Not giving your kid a smartphone can be detrimental, its not gonna work unless the entire school admin is on board with it.
Your grades can literally drop from not having a smartphone. Insanity, I know.
I got mine at 11 which was younger than that. Thankfully I was quite well behaved already and knew not to share personal information online. Beforehand I had been using a family desktop computer. I was very cagey about who even obtained my phone number.
A lot of services today do require a cell number for sign-up, as a form of “expensive ID” that one can’t just make more of.
My guess is that a lot of kids might be kinda conditioned to provide it to services, since these days, they’re probably already handing it over if they’re getting a Google account or something.
All this is assuming that the kid has a cell phone with service. I suspect that it’d be easier, from a technical standpoint, to keep a kid from cell service — which actually costs something and is harder to share — than Internet access.
My parents just didn’t want me being cyber bullied… Which didn’t make sense as I made an Instagram and talked there. My sister though still told me to keep the account private. It was under a pseudonym and I never even posted my face there
Doesn’t directly answer your question but relevant:
https://www.waituntil8th.org/
"The Wait Until 8th pledge empowers parents to rally together to delay giving children a smartphone until at least the end of 8th grade. Let’s protect the elementary and middle school years from the distractions and the dangers of a smartphone. Banding together helps decrease the pressure to have a phone at an early age. Ten years old is the average age children get their first smartphone. You can change this!
Smartphones are distracting and potentially dangerous for children yet are widespread in elementary and middle school because of unrealistic social pressure and expectations to have one.
These devices are quickly changing childhood for children. Playing outdoors, spending time with friends, reading books and hanging out with family is happening a lot less to make room for hours of snap chatting, instagramming, and catching up on YouTube.
Parents feel powerless in this uphill battle and need community support to help delay the ever-evolving presence of the smartphone in the classroom, social arena and family dinner table. Link arms with other parents to wait until at least the end of eighth grade for a smartphone!"
This needs a majority of other kids to also no have smartphone. If there only a few kids whose parents decided to not give them smartphones, you’re kinda subjecting them to a childhood/teenhood without friendship.
Source: I kinda just became a loner because I didn’t have a phone and my peers were in groupchats and sharing memes. Thanks, Mom; and Thanks, Society 🙃
Edit: And since some schools are underfunded and doesn’t have enough chromebooks for everyone, teachers would make kids use their phone to do classwork (on google classroom). Not giving your kid a smartphone can be detrimental, its not gonna work unless the entire school admin is on board with it.
Your grades can literally drop from not having a smartphone. Insanity, I know.
“This needs a majority of other kids to also no have smartphone.”
100% agree, that’s the whole point of the organization and other orgs like it. They founded it to raise awareness and to get families to support each other. A group mindset against phones in childhood and early adolescence, which I agree is much more difficult if you’re the only one without one.
are you happy with how you are?
I mean, I would’ve probably lost any friends I would’ve made after highschool ends, so I don’t think it was like a huge loss either way. But like not having friends during highschool kinda contributed to my depression.
Like this comment is not me complaining about not having a phone, its more of a “why the fuck is everyone in my school constantly on their phone” complaint.
Its not the “not having a phone” part that made me sad, but the social exclusion. Get what I’m saying?
So if this “phone ban” thing is gonna happen, it has to be either all or nothing, not some half-assed “voluntary” shit where half of the class is pressured by the other half for not having a phone.
And since some schools are underfunded and doesn’t have enough chromebooks for everyone, teachers would make kids use their phone to do classwork (on google classroom). Not giving your kid a smartphone can be detrimental, its not gonna work unless the entire school admin is on board with it.
Your grades can literally drop from not having a smartphone. Insanity, I know.
What is that in ages?
Not a hard link, but first grade is normally 6-7 years old, so eighth grade is 13-14.
I got mine at 11 which was younger than that. Thankfully I was quite well behaved already and knew not to share personal information online. Beforehand I had been using a family desktop computer. I was very cagey about who even obtained my phone number.
A lot of services today do require a cell number for sign-up, as a form of “expensive ID” that one can’t just make more of.
My guess is that a lot of kids might be kinda conditioned to provide it to services, since these days, they’re probably already handing it over if they’re getting a Google account or something.
All this is assuming that the kid has a cell phone with service. I suspect that it’d be easier, from a technical standpoint, to keep a kid from cell service — which actually costs something and is harder to share — than Internet access.
My parents just didn’t want me being cyber bullied… Which didn’t make sense as I made an Instagram and talked there. My sister though still told me to keep the account private. It was under a pseudonym and I never even posted my face there