4 ms·
Maybe? Parental controls aren’t a panacea. We set them for my older kids during high school. The older two pooled their allowance for three months and then had
by cgearhart 3y ago
Maybe? Parental controls aren’t a panacea. We set them for my older kids during high school. The older two pooled their allowance for three months and then had a friend at school order them an unlocked phone that they left in a locker they shared. Life, uh, finds a way…
Most of the research I’ve seen suggests pretty clearly that it’s social media, and it affects girls more than boys. (And, yes, the effect appears to be causal—see [1] for a summary with citations.) The hard part is that the research also shows that the correct amount isn’t 0, it’s just that above a certain amount is really, really bad.
[1] https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-ill...
- tarboreus 3y agoThat's actually kind of impressive. Sad that this energy is going into getting a phone, but shows admirable drive.
- cgearhart 3y agoI agree. I wasn’t even mad, exactly; and I was impressed with the effort. It led to a conversation about _why_ they had the screen time limits in the first place, and how they should take responsibility for those decisions for themselves.
- madphilosopher 3y agoWhen I was in high school (1990s), my friend Mark removed the top sheet-metal ceiling from his locker and discovered a phone line going past. So he tapped into it and, to my knowledge, became the only kid in school with a phone in his locker. It was used for prank calls, of course.