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

(gothamist.com)
279 points geox | 3 comments | 11 Sep 25 13:39 UTC | HN request time: 0s | 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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RyanOD ◴[11 Sep 25 18:01 UTC] No.45214354[source]▶
Yes, parents are definitely part of the problem here. I am a former teacher and my wife is an active teacher so we've seen this first hand.

Though not entirely to blame, parenting is certainly a part of the cell phone addiction problem. Setting time limits and holding kids accountable for breaking rules around phone use would go a long way toward guiding kids toward more healthy behaviors and letting them know someone cares about their well-being.

Modeling constrained phone use is another aspect. Parents will struggle to get their kids off their phones if they are spending all their own free time scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

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lrvick ◴[11 Sep 25 21:34 UTC] No.45216332[source]▶
100% which is why I refused to even try to be a parent until I gave up my smartphone. Parents unable to be present with their kids, should not be parents.
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0_____0 ◴[11 Sep 25 21:51 UTC] No.45216483[source]▶
I'm expecting a newborn soon and thinking the same. What did you change?
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1. RyanOD ◴[12 Sep 25 02:11 UTC] No.45217995{4}[source]▶
Congratulations! Who knows what the world will look like when your kids are in middle school / high school, but I would recommend strongly resisting social media / phones before they are in high school.

This can be tricky if all their friends / school communicates through such mediums as your kids may feel isolated. And yes, many schools promote the use of apps / social media as a shared means of communication for clubs, sports, etc. - which is maddening.

And, as parents, model reading physical books, not your phone.

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2. disgruntledphd2 ◴[12 Sep 25 12:56 UTC] No.45221611[source]▶
> And, as parents, model reading physical books, not your phone.

Speaking as a Dad of two (5 and 2), this is really hard, not because I don't read (I read a lot), but because every time I bring a physical book out the kids start grabbing it, so it's much easier to use my Kindle.

Additionally, I'd probably end up getting divorced if we needed to find space for all the books I read in the house (I've acquired about 1100 books on Kindle over the past ~decade).

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3. 0_____0 ◴[12 Sep 25 20:34 UTC] No.45226444[source]▶
An e reader seems obviously a different type of device than your phone. Spiritually closer to a book than other types of screen.