Students and Cell Phones
by Hannah
Walking out of our school at the end of the day, most fellow students you see will probably be tapping at their cell phones. Some people think kids need them, others are opposed. Some kids even have several devices of their own. What is your opinion?
This school year, I have been asked the same two questions over and over. Those questions are as follows: “Do you have TickTock?” and “Have you seen baby Yoda?” And my consistent answer has been, “NO.”
Now having said that, a lot of you are probably thinking “WHAT?!” or “YOU HAVEN’T?!” But I’ll tell you now: I’m in 5th grade, and I don’t have a phone. And for your information, I am perfectly fine with that.
My personal opinion is that kids don’t need phones.
The age level at which one is allowed to obtain one’s cell phone has been dropping lower and lower. I know some 1st graders who already have iPhones! Another thing is lots of people have Instagram or TickTock or other social media apps.
Some people say “Yes, we do,” for reasons like “So our parents can track us” and “So we can contact people.” Or “So we can play fun games.” Once someone told me, “You know you can’t play games on a flip phone,” because I told them I would probably get a flip phone once I was “old enough.” I knew. I am not allowed to, nor do I want to, play video games.
Being on an app like these can also affect what a kid knows about popular stuff. Everybody might be doing a certain online game or posting certain types of photos or videos as things change. Then kids who aren’t doing them might feel left out, since everybody else who is doing it will be talking about it. Or, a kid listening to certain songs will be singing those songs at school, or sharing them with friends. An example is the song Old Town Road earlier this year. Almost overnight everybody had heard it, probably by way of some online connection.
This shows the big impact that a cell phone can have on a kid. A news article I read says studies have proven that toddlers who had NO screen time or NO phones, but instead were read to, and engaged in creative activities, used and grew all parts of their brains, While toddlers who DID have screen time or phones were not engaging all parts of the brain and some parts were essentially turned off. In the article, Dr. John Hutton says, “Kids who have more stimulating experiences that organize the brain are at a huge advantage when they get to school, and it’s really harder and harder to catch up if they arrive behind.”
These are my reasons. Again, what do you think? I’m just a kid with an opinion on tech.