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> If you don't give your kids smart phones you cut them off of people. It's a conundrum. You cut them off from people if they don't have a $1000 computer in
by Japhy_Ryder 7y ago
> If you don't give your kids smart phones you cut them off of people. It's a conundrum.
You cut them off from people if they don't have a $1000 computer in their pocket?
Dumb phones are still a thing. They can call, text, and many have a camera that can send lower-res images. I think that's way more than enough to stay in touch. They don't need "Apps".
- gbear605 7y agoSorry to tell you this, but teenagers don’t text anymore. They use apps instead - Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp, Telegram - because texting is a broken system that doesn’t work reliably. If you cut your kid off from a smartphone, given today’s teenagers, you would be excluding them from anything social outside of school.
- Japhy_Ryder 7y ago> because texting is a broken system that doesn’t work reliably Oh really? Could you elaborate on that? I, as a high-tech professional in my early 30s, keep in touch with my pals in a group text. It's never failed.
- gbear605 7y agoDoes your friend group include both iPhones and Androids? From experience, any group chat that includes both is going to result in splits (like in IRC), messages simply not going through, and messages arriving multiple days late. In addition, they don’t have the usability features that you get from apps, like read receipts, or being able to add a person to a group message and them being able to see the entire history. EDIT: That said, you don’t need a $1000 iPhone. A $200 used smartphone (easily found for iPhone or Android) is good enough.
- Japhy_Ryder 7y agoPoint well taken. Apps do provide some usability boost and it's true that in a mixed iOS/Android setting things can get funky sometimes, but I always assumed that it was a carrier issue. As much as I hate Facebook, Messenger is pretty damn solid.