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From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens adjusting to the smartphone ban

(gothamist.com)
279 points geox | 1 comments | 11 Sep 25 13:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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trentnix ◴[11 Sep 25 14:08 UTC] No.45211888[source]▶
Texas banned phones in schools as well. A local school administrator told me “in the high school, the lunch room is now loud with talking and laughter!”

There are still parents that complain. Turns out they are as addicted to texting with their kids all day as their kids are addicted to the same.

Regardless, it’s great to see that the ban has seemingly nudged things in a healthier direction. Its a failure of leadership that schools needed a statewide ban to make such an obviously positive change.

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softwaredoug ◴[11 Sep 25 14:11 UTC] No.45211928[source]▶
Phones might be as much a symptom as a cause

The related issue is parents are overly protective of teens and don't give them enough independence. You see this in a lot of different ways from parents wanting to text their kids, to only letting kids do highly managed structured activities, to treating teens as their best friends, to helicopter parenting protecting kids from all adversity, etc etc

And a similar thing happens not just with parents, but society, there are not a lot of places teens can just hang out. A lot of fun things teens would do increasingly ban minors.

If you want teens off devices, you need to give them alternatives

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Aurornis ◴[11 Sep 25 17:55 UTC] No.45214298[source]▶
> but society, there are not a lot of places teens can just hang out. A lot of fun things teens would do increasingly ban minors.

What fun things ban minors? I’m genuinely asking, because I don’t see that around here.

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softwaredoug ◴[11 Sep 25 18:07 UTC] No.45214410[source]▶
Malls, movie theaters, arcades all require a parental escort. Not to mention the general problem society has with free-range kids.

So I am empathetic when the kids want Minecraft to be that space since society doesn't give it to them.

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happyopossum ◴[11 Sep 25 18:35 UTC] No.45214702[source]▶
>Malls, movie theaters, arcades all require a parental escort

I don’t know where you are, but that sounds like a horrible place to raise kids. I’m in a California suburb, and my teenage kids go to the local malls and theaters wi their us all the time - it’s great for their independence and social life.

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1. lovich ◴[11 Sep 25 21:25 UTC] No.45216268[source]▶
There lucky if they even exist. Where I grew up the local malls and hangouts that were within <30 minute drive had all died _and_ society had already moved into the “unattended minors are a threat to society” model

I tried walking 2-3 miles to school or to a friends and got picked up by the police and brought home, so I stopped going outside and became a homebody nerd. I’m not really surprised it got worse decades later with better entertainment on machines and even worse busybodies outside