Change has happened quickly.
In the parents’ message group, there was a discussion last winter about the mobile phones of future first graders. Many were of the opinion that at most a bell phone, if that.
I personally thought that when the siblings also got a smartphone, it was true for the youngest as well. You have to treat your children equally, right?
Now that reasoning is a bit amusing. After all, it’s just not taken from the same box as the one claimed to be used by children “when everyone else has it too”.
Hearing about the goals of the national brain health program at the parents’ evening in May sealed the decision. No cell phone yet.
I felt it at the same time a little stunned, hopefully joyful and rebellious.
Amazed because just a few years ago a cell phone was a matter of course, the acquisition of which was part of starting school in the same way as learning to tie shoelaces.
The hopeful joy came from realizing that hallelujah, in this world that believes in digital games, it is possible to take a step back.
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Instead of beating myself up, I look forward.
The rebellion boiled down to being healthy for telecom operators, who know how to advertise smartphones to children under school age. We don’t even buy yet.
Well, it’s hard to avoid buying. I think we parents are too used to knowing – along with Google Maps – where our child is. I predict a spike in sales of phone clocks.
Now I wonder the most about how it was so difficult to take back one’s agency.
I have read the news that 65 percent of Finnish parents are worried about their children’s smartphone use. News about how Silicon Valley’s achievers do not give their children mobile phones. And about how smartphones are considered in France prohibition from children under 13 years of age. And what have I done? Wished that it would be good for us too.
Instead of beating myself up, I look forward. I thought of ways to reduce the screen staring of all family members and wondered if my lost ability to concentrate could be found in this direction.
Someone once advised to attach a post-it note to the phone that reads: Why? It sounded smart, I forgot to implement.
So, if someone prints a nice little sticker reminding us of the brain’s right in a cell-free age, I promise to tape it to the side of my phone.
Maybe then I would remember to protect my brain from the temptations of social media as consistently as when I ride a bike I protect it from bumps by pressing a helmet on my head.
The author is HS’s culture editor.
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