I think as every year passes we get closer to a point where younger and younger kids need a cell phone. I grew up till about 12 without one, so I can quite dis

I think as every year passes we get closer to a point where younger and younger kids need a cell phone. I grew up till about 12 without one, so I can quite distinctly remember a time without. And even then, I didn’t get a smartphone until like 14. “Mobile culture” didn’t really take off till my last 2 years in HS. A lot of being a kid nowadays involves interacting with others on these devices. But at the same time, we are losing what it mean to be a kid during the rest of human history. We give kids smartphones early and they miss out on a time without knowing about the constant, everlasting connection to information and social networks/media, but if we give them the phones too late, they are substantially behind their peers socially. I think the right answer is “when all their friends have them”, and then to encourage them to only use a smart subset of apps (discord, texting, maybe snapchat) and dump the rest.