Tuesday, January 10, 2012

@FBCWinn and "Does my child need a mobile phone?"

I decided I could handle doing twitter and facebook for our church family. Is it too much? I don't think so. There are so many tools available to communicate with each other that it has become an easy task to do so in under a few minutes. Hootsuite is such a tool. It allows me to post to facebook AND to twitter at the same time. Not bad.

"Does my child need a cell phone?"
As I visited a local school I noticed a few baskets in the office full of mobile phones. I thought, "Wow, someone could make some money selling those." Then it hit me. These were phones which were collected at the beginning of the day from students who brought them to school. Some of these phones belong to students as young as 3rd or 4th grade. My questions are, "Really? Do who do these kids need to contact at school? Who do these kids ever need to call? How many of them are driving? At this age, do they really need a mobile?" I posted a similar question on facebook, but no one responded. I am wondering, just wondering, why does a young child need a mobile phone? I am not judging anyone, but just want to know why some feel a child needs a mobile phone?

4 comments:

  1. As you know our Senior just got her 1st cell phone for Christmas and we personally have seen no NEED for any of our kids to have their own person line. Still dont see it as a NEED so much as a convience. There is no need whatsoever for kids to have them at school. If you need to contact your child in the event of an emergency, call the school. You will have to contact them to get your child out of school so I fail to see the logic most parents try to use by saying "well,what if there is an emergency and I HAVE to get ahold of my child?"
    In the week since Jess has had her phone set up, she has not put it down. It is a constant distraction for her at 17. She is flipping it open and texting or on Facebook every time I turn around now...1 week...thats all it took! Now you cannot tell me that an 8 year old would not be the exact same way. Let them play outside in the dirt and run around a school yard, not hunch over their smartphone "being social" on some website! Why we instist on making little adults out of our kids is beyond me...yeah this is a hot button for me!

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  2. Oops. Make that only one person responded.

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  3. Most of the kids I know who have them are latch key kids. Mom and Dad working and they walk to school from their home and from school back to their home. Security purposes?

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  4. Craig, we just gave our youngest an inactivated phone because it still has 911 service on it. Yes, she is with us majority of the time but emergencies are never planned. We haven't had a home phone in years and I know more and more people are going that way. Just a little added safety!

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