A decade on, I still wonder if I was wrong to give my daughters a smartphone
I still think about the dilemma I faced as a parent over whether to give my kids smartphones, even though a decade has passed since.
When they were in junior school, my daughters craved these magical devices. They claimed they would become social outcasts without phones because “everyone else has them”. Even other adults seemed to be on their side. Some parents insisted that phones were a “safety” device, enabling kids in trouble to call for help. The tipping point came when a lawyer I know noted that it was good for children like mine, whose parents had separated, to have a phone to stay in contact with the parent who wasn’t around. Eventually, I put aside my scruples and caved in.
The pattern was particularly stark in one of six mental health categories, known as the “social self”, which tracks how we view ourselves and relate to others. Sapien attributed this pattern not only to increased technology use but to decreasing interactions with others. “Given the statistics of five to eight hours a day spent online during childhood, we estimate that this could displace as much as 1,000 to 2,000 hours a year that would otherwise be spent in various face-to-face social interactions,” they write.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Gillian Tett
