Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring bananas phone
I don't have kids, so maybe I shouldn't be commenting on stuff that involves raising kids, but I dunno. The Internet is currently jizzing itself over sensei Louis CK's revelation that he's never going to let his kids have smartphones, and I think that stance is, well, kind of horse shit?
I understand the position of not letting your kids have smartphones until they've proven themselves responsible enough to take one on, and I definitely agree with yanking it away and beating them over the head with it if they use their new power for evil instead of good. I also agree with taking away anything that interferes with a kid's schoolwork, even though I fall on my knees daily and thank God that I never have to go to school ever again. But I think utterly denying your kids of Product X does not automatically enrich them as human beings.
How many of you '80s-'90s kids out there had friends who were never allowed to partake in whatever the media was fretting about at the time, like The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Nintendo, or just TV in general? How many of those friends grew up to be great scholars of the new millennium who'd managed to achieve a higher form of knowledge?
Now, how many of those friends just grew up into okay people that operate at same level of decency and intelligence as the rest of us?
My parents didn't allow VCRs in the house because they didn't want us to watch the same movies over and over. Understandable, but not having a VCR actually proved to be a major inconvenience as far as my schoolwork went. I also feel like I missed out on some great movies at the height of their popularity, and my parents' fears were unfounded because sitting and watching hours and hours of TV was never in my character.
In the same vein, I imagine things must be pretty inconvenient for a 13+-year-old* who's not allowed to own a smartphone because dad went on TV and said they're bad. New tech drips into our lives, and there's not a whole lot we can do to stanch the flow. If you say, "Smartphones are terrible and stifle our ability to communicate with one another," you may as well go down the line and check off everything else that supposedly robs us of face-to-face communication. Sooner or later you're going to get to novels (which enjoyed their own searing day in the Spotlight of Shame--consider Henry Beamis and Time Enough at Last) and then electricity, period. Before the advent of electric light, people commonly woke up in the middle of the night to pray, take a walk, or talk to neighbours. Now we sleep for eight hours at a time, and socialization has suffered! I guess.
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*I have no idea how old CK's kids are. I think 13 would be a good age for a kid to have a smartphone, but his interview with Conan indicates he never plans to let 'em have one, so I guess their age is irrelevant.
I understand the position of not letting your kids have smartphones until they've proven themselves responsible enough to take one on, and I definitely agree with yanking it away and beating them over the head with it if they use their new power for evil instead of good. I also agree with taking away anything that interferes with a kid's schoolwork, even though I fall on my knees daily and thank God that I never have to go to school ever again. But I think utterly denying your kids of Product X does not automatically enrich them as human beings.
How many of you '80s-'90s kids out there had friends who were never allowed to partake in whatever the media was fretting about at the time, like The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Nintendo, or just TV in general? How many of those friends grew up to be great scholars of the new millennium who'd managed to achieve a higher form of knowledge?
Now, how many of those friends just grew up into okay people that operate at same level of decency and intelligence as the rest of us?
My parents didn't allow VCRs in the house because they didn't want us to watch the same movies over and over. Understandable, but not having a VCR actually proved to be a major inconvenience as far as my schoolwork went. I also feel like I missed out on some great movies at the height of their popularity, and my parents' fears were unfounded because sitting and watching hours and hours of TV was never in my character.
In the same vein, I imagine things must be pretty inconvenient for a 13+-year-old* who's not allowed to own a smartphone because dad went on TV and said they're bad. New tech drips into our lives, and there's not a whole lot we can do to stanch the flow. If you say, "Smartphones are terrible and stifle our ability to communicate with one another," you may as well go down the line and check off everything else that supposedly robs us of face-to-face communication. Sooner or later you're going to get to novels (which enjoyed their own searing day in the Spotlight of Shame--consider Henry Beamis and Time Enough at Last) and then electricity, period. Before the advent of electric light, people commonly woke up in the middle of the night to pray, take a walk, or talk to neighbours. Now we sleep for eight hours at a time, and socialization has suffered! I guess.
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*I have no idea how old CK's kids are. I think 13 would be a good age for a kid to have a smartphone, but his interview with Conan indicates he never plans to let 'em have one, so I guess their age is irrelevant.