“I can’t wait to get my driver’s license and then my own car!” has been replaced by “I can’t wait to get my own phone!”
Back in the day it was the dream of nearly every 15 and 16-year-old. A driver’s license meant you were somebody. The piece of plastic meant you had passed driver’s education classes, the written exam at the local department of motor vehicles, and the dreaded behind the wheel test. The card was so much more than an ID. The card provided opportunities for freedom and privacy.
Never again would you have to bum a ride. With you behind the wheel, the music on the radio was your decision alone. The mall, your friend’s pool, your girlfriend’s house, hanging out in the park and more were all a turn of the key away. Your car was your world. At the top of the list of things your parents could take away from you was to ground you from your car. Stuck at home. No friends. No liberty. No privacy.
But this is 2023 and getting a driver’s license is still a big deal, but I suspect if you were to ask a teen to make a choice between losing driving privileges and losing his cell phone, he’d sooner walk uphill both ways than lose the privacy and freedom that comes with having his own phone. With his phone he has the solitude and autonomy previous generations had with their cars. On his phone he can go to the mall, hang out with friends, text his girlfriend, and spend hours doing what he wants with whomever he wants. And because he’s good with tech, no one has to know any of the details. All the privacy and all the liberty with minimal hassles.
It used to be parents and older teens battled over the car. They still may, but any parent who’s crossed swords with her teen over the use of a cell phone will tell you about a battle described as Armageddon.
Before children secure their driver’s licenses, we require them to sit in a classroom weeks on end, practice a predetermined number of hours in a moving vehicle, wait for many months after getting a learner’s permit before driving solo, and then pass both a written and driving test before we give them the privilege to drive a car. Once a kid gets his license, he’s met with all kinds of restrictions. The law limits the number of people he can transport as a new driver, and the law limits the time of day he can drive. Parents may put additional restrictions on a young driver. All these moves make sense. It is a huge responsibility to drive a car.
And it’s a huge responsibility to give a child a smart phone. But what training do children receive before their hands grasp their first phone? What preventions do the mature put in place to protect the immature from dangers they cannot imagine? How do those who supply the phone and the data usage ensure that they are not bringing a handheld idol into their children’s bedrooms, a god their children will defend with their last breath?
Smartphones have been around for more than twenty years. Before the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel, there was Ericsson’s R380 which hit the market in 2000. Today’s children, teens, and most college students have lived only in a world of smartphones. Smartphones are a part of who we are as humans. For most of us, rarely does a day go by where we are not served by an app and in some cases under the tyranny of another app. Like everything else that is not the Trinity, a smartphone is a great servant but a brutal master.
Now, with more than twenty years of evidence, what have we learned about the benefits and dangers of smartphone technology? Are we better for them? Are we the worse? I’ll pick it up here next week, attempt to answer the questions, and offer some suggestions for training and managing smartphone use in our families.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.