Ok, im not a tech hater. In fact im immersed in more tech then i should be. But then again im 18.
But when i see a 12 year old girl with an iPhone 5, i get mad. Why should a young kid be allowed the latest iPhone (and im sure that for most kids i see with an iPhone 5, they probably had the oh so old iPhone 4s and pestered their parents into getting them an iPhone 5).
So i was wondering does anyone else think young kids (lets just say under 14) should be allowed smartphones, or any device that has a data plan (tablet, phone, etc)?
And what are your reasons for/against?
and im not against them having ipods…thats fine! but like smartphones are just too much!
I really think that kids before 14 dont need those kind of gadgets at all, maiby a simple tablet or a mp3, but a computer only if they are monitored by their parents, and of course, not an smartphone, for me it really looks stupid. Its a waste of money becouse they dont really do much with that and also they dont know how to keep it in nice conditions(free of shitware and having care with the drops).
When i see a kid with a tablet or smartphone, they allways have it full of shitware like 10 different types of farmvilles, and that drives me mad(thats why I installed a GBA emulator in my little sister tablet)
To be blunt as usual:
Kids should have hi-tech and use it but they should not have to be ignorant or stupid.
How many people in their 60s today struggle to handle a computer because they either thought that’s a useless piece of hitech, or because their parents thought it’s dumbing them down?
Technology advances rapidly, education is a joke. Todays teachers duty(!) should be to keep up with technology, be it hardware or software and social media, and there should be a class that teaches the responsible usage of hardware, guidelines how to behave in social networks, basic information on how the internet works.
Kids are not too stupid to grasp those concepts. If you can teach them to look left and right (or vice versa depending on where you life) and not to talk or go with strangers, it can’t be hard to teach them some basic rules for the digital world.
The problem is most parents are simply too yesterday for the task or think it’s not important and the educational system doesn’t chip in as it should.
And it’s a growing problem, not to mention that the amount of knowledge mankind has grows and grows but the school-system does not adapt. There’ll be a point in the future where you have to learn differential equations in Kindergarten or either already then choose to work in… I don’t know how to call the jobs in English without sounding insulting… working in burger joints or at construction yards… I don’t think less of those people, they are needed in a society and often it’s their choice not to aim for a higher education, I just don’t know the word.
Anyways. Either that, or you choose to stay in school until you’er 60 to grasp what we know.
If anyone is familiar with Ray Kurzweil he knows what I am speaking about. While he’s “nuts” regarding some topics he’s surely right that our knowledge soon will overcome our ability to learn. And either we have to find a way to get the knowledge into our brains with technology or revamp education as it is.
But soon we’ll reach terminal velocity for improvement if we continue as it is and only a hand full of people will be able to advance the whole of mankind and even the smarter ones among our race will look like stone smashing primates
I think for children it should be mandatory to as soon as possible:
learn technical English to have a unified access to knowledge
use various technical devices to make them part of their lifes and not alien devices
most important: get taught the correct and responsible use of devices.
And if a 10 year old has an iPhone or a cheap Droid isn’t really the issue IMO. One most likely hates their parents fashion or parenting choices, or simply that they have that much money that they don’t care if their kid uses an iPhone as shovel in the sandbox.
But that’s what have to be taught to children. The value of such a device, all in resources, money and the knowledge and fun it can provide.
What’s important is that the kids learn to use the technology. Who knows how even more tightly integrated an online presence will be in their adult lives. Or do you want your kid to end up like the old guy in your office asking for help to print the 5 line notepad document he spent to write the last 2 hours?
The best example i know about outdated education is the informatics class in my school a few years ago.
When i was in 4th ESO(about 3 years ago, 15 years old i think) I had that class, wich was pathetic beyond limits.
The book was a joke, how you put a book about windows XP “grandpa” level, opening and closing windows to teens of our age, wich have to do work in excel and word. Even funnier was when they changed the PCs, to shiny new I3 with win7, now the book is completely useless and outdated.
Now, 3 years later, in the last school year, i see that the 4ESO teens still use THAT book, wich made me laugh.
School is terribly outdated, i dont know in other countries, but in mine(spain), the books still have the same things than 10 years ago, and most students know more than their teachers regarding computers and gadgets.
I ve put that children shouldnt have gadgets when they are too young, becouse in 90% of the time, their parents know nothing about computers, and wont control them or teach them how to use the net logically. In fact, besides some geeks or people that work in a computer related work know little of the new stuff and nets. When i talked about OpenSourceSoftware to my father(like 45years old)
he thought that there has to be something fishy there, becouse you cant have free stuff.
That’s part of, and so to say the issue.
Parents can’t educate their children about stuff they don’t know.
The parents often have no time or simply don’t want, or can’t educate themselves.
If you can’t teach something to your child, you get someone who can, most surprising, they’re called teachers
If we could teach everything to our offspring ourselves we would not need any schools.
Now if the teachers can’t teach it, lack the materials or are simply not allowed to teach the kids this stuff… what’s left then other than them landing in the digital limbo?
And there would be nothing wrong to send your kid to some IT summer camp, but there you’d have to pay. But that’d be the only option unless the public school system finally gets over their antiquated ways.
And I still see that nerds and geeks (just not the latest breed pop culture geek) are considered leprous and uncool. You don’t surround yourself with them, nor do you let your kids near those creeps, while they actually could be of help…
In some countries more in some less… sociocultural and demographic reasons I guess.
As a parent of a 3 year old, I thought I’d chime in.
He does have my old Ipod, which we put movies on for long car journeys, or boring dinners with family. Just something to distract him, he also plays on my wifes Ipad - a bit of Angry birds, or games which teach him his numbers or Letters. I don’t see a problem with this really. It’s the way the world is going.
However, my two Nieces and my Nephew are in their teens / pre teens (11 - 16). The oldest has a job, and pays her way somewhat. The other two both have tablets, blackberries and computers in their rooms (The youngest boy is addicted to minecraft). I don’t agree at all with that they have, and I certainly won’t be buying my son (or any future additions) expensive things like that.
Mobile phones - Yes. As a parent, and a teenager when phones became “popular” - it’s always on my mind that I would like to know what my offspring is doing, and where he is. Also that he can ring home whenever he wants (in a few years of course!). PAYG mobiles are great for this. Hell, both my Wife’s and mine mobile are Pay as you Go!
For Teenagers having the latest gadgets - Really, what’s the point? They will get broken / Stolen / Lost / abused etc etc. A cheap mobile that you can text / ring home from is fine, a computer at home (which is monitored) is pretty essential, but other than that? Let them save up and buy them. Maybe then they will look after it, and understand just how much work you have to put in to be able to afford things like that.
When I was young, we had access to computer and console games (provided they were age appropriate), but we weren’t allowed on the internet, and even then our parents required us to have some time away to play outside, go to the park, and just be kids.
Generally, it wouldn’t be inappropriate for kids to have basic access to digital devices for things like games and music, but you should really try to keep them off of the internet (outside of a few sites specially designed for young kids) until they are old enough to understand that they will see people who believe in things and use language that they will disagree with (and even then providing you have common sense parental controls to keep them away from obscenity and vulgarity).
Providing you have that you still want to make sure they have plenty of time away so as to allow them to use their imagination and ability to be kids by sending them outside, taking them to the park or playground, or allowing indoor playtime with non-electronic toys (such as plastic action figures/animals, beanie babies, building blocks ect…).
When I was a kid, I didn’t just sit around on the PC or TV all day playing games, we also had a treehouse (with a slide and rope) and a sandbox to play in (a handmade wooden one that was bigger than the average plastic one). We spent time playing with plastic toys, flooding the sandbox with the garden hose to see how long how castles can stand, played in the sprinklers from time to time, went to the neighborhood pool, played with our toys outside ect… To sum it up, it’s again, not inappropriate to give kids basic access to technology, but it’s recommended that you do so in moderation and ensure there’s still plenty of time where they’re unplugged.
My reason for saying no is because of Facebook, and the like serving as a powerful distraction, and the overall expense. I have no qualms about giving them secondhand devices with limited data access, and even more so if schools would teach about computers.
I agree with Ace Dragon “To sum it up, it’s again, not inappropriate to give kids basic access to technology, but it’s recommended that you do so in moderation and ensure there’s still plenty of time where they’re unplugged.”
Kids can be allowed electronics as long as they show the maturity to use it. If they want the latest iPhone just because their friends all have then no they should not be allowed to have it. But if they have a job and maybe even help pay the data bill (like 5-10$) then they are responsible enough to have whatever the heck they want. But when i see a 10 year old who is careless with an iPhone 5 trying to act cool its just pis** me off. I live in Southern California so maybe just where i live there is a large number of kids with gadgets…?
arexma - yes its important for kids to stay updated on technology but not to the point where the parent is spending hundreds of dollars worth of items for them. Sure a new computer maybe every year and a half is reasonable but not every 6 months. and a new phone every 2 years but not every 1 year.
arexma - yes its important for kids to stay updated on technology but not to the point where the parent is spending hundreds of dollars worth of items for them. Sure a new computer maybe every year and a half is reasonable but not every 6 months. and a new phone every 2 years but not every 1 year.
When I was growing up, we only had the family computer in my father’s office, we took turns using it and every now and then we’d get a new one.
It’s not like we spent big money on the machines either, now are first machine bought back in the late 1980’s was pricey, but once manufacturers started building low-end machines for 300-400 USD, we got those. It wasn’t until my teen years that my father bought a low-end machine just for my stuff, and the first few years of using Blender was on a lower-end Pentium D until I obtained enough money from selling my Blender work and Highschool graduation to buy a Quad Core (which is now my father’s work machine since I replaced it with a new one containing a third-gen i7).
I also did not grow up with a television in my room (which is still true to this day despite the abundance of cheap models simply because I don’t need one), but it didn’t matter to me because I often got to watch my favorite shows on the main household TV (which was animation airing on the broadcast networks since we didn’t have cable for a while).
One thing I can say that I can thank my father for not buying for me is when he decided to get my a low-end Dell Dimension PC rather than an E-Machine (I went to a type of transition school where I loaded Blender on an E-machine and it just steadily got slower and slower until it ran like molasses)
I let my 3 now 4 year old have a old computer and she goes on the net. So far the worse thing is utube where a kid narrated a video and talk bad. She has some learning sites but spends a little to much time watching cartoons. she has a crayola key board and penguin mouse. Oh my at this second she just put Minnie mouse watch in the shopping cart oh no.
