Kid and cell phones

[wenrob]

But an Atlas can also be out of date and have incorrect information basically as soon as it's printed. If I'm going somewhere unfamiliar and I'm planning on using GPS, I call up Google maps on my computer and get a look at the general area (what interstates, how far off the interstates, etc). Then I use GPS in my vehicle.

I will say my reliance on GPS has decreased my sense of direction somewhat.

I was going to say it’s given me a sense of direction but I moved just about as far North as you can get in the Valley around the same time that using a map on your phone became a thing. To get anywhere I pretty much have to go South and know to get home I have to go North. For me it’s a chicken or egg type of thing.

 

[wenrob]

The cell phones WERE fully charge. They had no SIGNAL due to to towers be knocked out. The buried phone lines still worked! In Las Vegas maybe not. A rain/wind or snow storm can make power and data difficult to access. All I was saying was don't be come TOO dependent on technology and forget how to use older methods. Ever driven in area where towers are few and far between? Now put some sort or storm, or natural disaster that interferes with or damages those. Driving without access to your data knowing how to use and having a map or atlas to guide you would be helpful. I can drive on many major highways and not get a signal especially mountain passes/ valleys.

I said *for me* it’s not an issue. The handful of high level incidents that have happened in this city over my lifetime still have never warranted the level of preparation you’re talking about. The rest of the city goes about their business. I can’t think of a single time where the whole Valley or even half of it has been shut down. While I won’t say it would never happen the chances of losing all power and all cell towers throughout the entire Valley are highly unlikely. Therefore making sure my phone is charged is enough.

As far as driving, losing a signal doesn’t render your phone into a brick. Maps can be used offline. If I’m in an area where I lose signal chances are I will soon drive into an area where there is one. In the meantime I can do something silly like pay attention to the signs and markers along the route. Using GPS/Maps doesn’t automatically turn me into someone without thinking skills.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Re phones and emergencies. I always kept my land line for that reason, i.e. It was connected to our 911 system. Well guess what, the day came that I had to call 911 with an explosive fire raging in the back of our house and our land line was dead! (We had been hit with lightening and it blew out all our electricity.) Thankfully I had my cell phone in my hand and I was able to get help that way. So this can go either way. We still have our land line (which comes with our internet package) and honestly I never use it; the only calls we get on it are spam. (Annoying!!)

As to the atlas. I think reading a map is a good skill to know, sure. (Even when I was growing up, my father used to say that if you knew how to read a map, you could go anywhere. I'm also thinking of how mariners still have to learn to use old fashioned navigation tools during their training.) But I still use that skill with electronic GPS. I study maps a lot, just recently looking to find a place to stay that would put us closest to somewhere we needed to be. I taught my kids to do this when we were planning road trips, too. Just yesterday I sent them both a map for something else. If I'm going somewhere my GPS generally gives me several choices; it's helpful to know the nuances of each route, not just look at the time factor.

I agree that ten years ago, kids having phones seemed more optional than it does today. Now, our world has gone electronic, it seems. Personally, I think balance is a good thing. I think it would be really hard to be that kid who is out of the loop, since kids today communicate by text and other means (Snapchat, etc.) almost exclusively. (Whether that's a good or bad thing notwithstanding.) I think the healthiest attitude is probably letting them have a phone with some limits, IMO. And I mean not just what they're looking at, but when and how, etc. But everyone has to do what's right for their families.

 

[sam_gordon]

We still have our land line (which comes with our internet package)

I just want to point out that odds are that's not a true land line. If your internet goes out, I'm guessing you have no phone service. We're the same way. We went away from the traditional land line and have it through our internet (what's technically a VoIP line... Voice over IP).

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I just want to point out that odds are that's not a true land line. If your internet goes out, I'm guessing you have no phone service. We're the same way. We went away from the traditional land line and have it through our internet (what's technically a VoIP line... Voice over IP).

It is actually a real land line; the same one we've had since we bought the house long before internet was available. We also have an in-law apt connected, too, and that's the phone my mother uses exclusively. It breaks a lot and repairmen have to go out to the telephone pole to fix it, lol. What I meant was that the cost is included in the internet package, so there's been little incentive to actually get rid of it.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I think another thing to think about is that technology proficiency is a skill people expect in the workplace. Every once in awhile we’ll get someone new in the volunteer agency I’m involved in that doesn’t have basic knowledge of cell phones, iPads, computers, etc. It’s a huge handicap and typically that person doesn’t stay since they are so behind the curve. Most workplaces don’t have the time to bring their skills up to par.

I completely understand wanting to limit screen time and not be tied to a phone but I think it’s also important to recognize that people have always needed to adapt to new tools or lose their competitive advantage.

Oh I do know how to use all this stuff for professional purposes! When I am provided a cell phone for work purposes, I definitely use it for those reasons! I'm not behind the learning curve by any means. I just do not spend my personal time in that way. And I find navigation much easier with an actual map and knowledge of where the road is actually taking me than with some distracting device screeching at me, "Turn right! Turn right!"

I don't have control over what DD does all day - like at school. I have watched a few of her classmates choose to sit down at recess/lunch break and poke at their shiny screens rather than play on the playground or talk to other human beings, and I don't want DD to see that as a viable option for herself! And our school doesn't have the right to take away a "parent's communication device" so the kids are always finding ways around the watching eyes of the teachers. I mean, I did the same thing myself with my Walkman - I wore it in a pouch under my clothes and snaked the headphone line up my sleeve so I could listen to music while doing my work... LOL

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

First three got basic phones when they began sixth grade. It had more to do with extracurriculars after school. Oldest got a smart phone in ninth grade, next two got smart phones for Christmas in 8th grade. Fourth child, got smart phone in sixth grade....you could tell my strict parenting weathered over time.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Linda

If the electricity went out, an old style land line should not go out because of that. We have had our electricity go out many times (reminds me to get that whole house generator I have been putting off) over the past 47 years we have been here, but have never had our old style land line go out. I've used it always in the past to report power outages. Now I use my cell phone CommEd app to report.

our land line was dead! (We had been hit with lightening and it blew out all our electricity.)

It is actually a real land line;

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Ehh, yeah, they're pretty hung up on HAVING the phone too. For a pretty big number of my students, their lives literally revolve around those little boxes.

OK, you win. I really don't think I could have been more clear about what I meant, but OK

 

[tcufrog]

When DS11 got his cell phone we got him a flip phone. When I got a free upgrade on my smart phone my dh offered my smart phone to DS11 without asking me. DS11 ended up not being ready for a smart phone so we downgraded him back to a flip phone which of course he didn’t like. We didn’t have his old flip phone anymore so I went to Best Buy to get him a new one. The salesperson didn’t tell me though that the flip phone had a web browser. Getting it turned off so that he could only talk and text was a big headache that involved two calls to AT&T.

 

[design_mom]

I realize this thread and veered into other things, but...

My kids got cell phones in middle school (now high schoolers.) I held out longer than most of their friends did. However, DS had a number of extracurricular activities where we'd drop off. One time, at the hockey rink, I realized I'd forgotten my phone and I needed to call DH about something. There was no pay phone at the rink, nor at any of the several nearby stores and fast-food restaurants. I asked the guy at the front desk of the hockey rink if I could use their phone and he said I could not. It was against policy. The kid ultimately loaned me his personal phone, which was very nice of him, but I didn't realize how hard pay phones were to find until that point. My son also played soccer and if practice ended early (weather, etc.) the coach would stay till all parents picked up. And someone always loaned my son a phone to call me... but I also didn't want him to be "that kid" who was always asking to borrow nor be the parents who were always the last to show up because we didn't find out as early as the other parents that pickup was needed. So, although it wasn't a "need," it was beginning to seem like more than a luxury.

Now, in high school, it seems like they're expected to have one. Technically it's optional, but really, it isn't.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Parenting dynamics and social expectations have changed since then, though. A lot of the ways we handled situations like that when I was a kid, including leaving a bunch of kids to wait for a parent unsupervised or letting a kid walk home/ride with a friend without prior approval from a parent, just aren't done now. And yes, part of that is because we as a culture are so much more fearful than we were a generation or two ago. I walked home from kindergarten too, but no school would just let a 5yo walk away now... Depending on the school, students around me have to reach 4th or 6th grade to be able to leave after school without a parent or other responsible adult (who must be known to the school and on the emergency card).

Agree!!

I am a youth sports coach, and have been a GS leader in the past - we are REQUIRED to stay with every child until a parent is there. So, in the example of the PP who said kids won't melt or die or whatever if they have to wait 30 minutes to be picked up because a thunderstorm caused practice to end at 6:30 instead of 7pm, as the coach now I have to wait there until little Susie's mom decides to leave Starbucks and come and get her kid. If Suzie had a phone, she can get on that phone and tell her mom to come and get her NOW. If my 6th grade girls don't have phones (and yes, we have a bag they put them in during practice and they get them back when practice is over), then I am calling 25 parents IF the girls even know their parents phone # - or else I have to dig though my paperwork to find their emergency cards....

It is much, much easier for the kids just to have their phones. And as a coach, I have a family, work, and life that I want to get home to, too.

 

[wenrob]

When DS11 got his cell phone we got him a flip phone. When I got a free upgrade on my smart phone my dh offered my smart phone to DS11 without asking me. DS11 ended up not being ready for a smart phone so we downgraded him back to a flip phone which of course he didn’t like. We didn’t have his old flip phone anymore so I went to Best Buy to get him a new one. The salesperson didn’t tell me though that the flip phone had a web browser. Getting it turned off so that he could only talk and text was a big headache that involved two calls to AT&T.

I had my grandma on my plan for years and it cost me some cash because she more than once accidentally turned off the standard WiFi shutdown and managed to surf the net when she didn’t mean to. I finally had to go into ATT&T and have it disabled.

Agree!!

I am a youth sports coach, and have been a GS leader in the past - we are REQUIRED to stay with every child until a parent is there. So, in the example of the PP who said kids won't melt or die or whatever if they have to wait 30 minutes to be picked up because a thunderstorm caused practice to end at 6:30 instead of 7pm, as the coach now I have to wait there until little Susie's mom decides to leave Starbucks and come and get her kid. If Suzie had a phone, she can get on that phone and tell her mom to come and get her NOW. If my 6th grade girls don't have phones (and yes, we have a bag they put them in during practice and they get them back when practice is over), then I am calling 25 parents IF the girls even know their parents phone # - or else I have to dig though my paperwork to find their emergency cards....

It is much, much easier for the kids just to have their phones. And as a coach, I have a family, work, and life that I want to get home to, too.

Oh I had this happen to me once in my soccer mom days. It wasn’t common for kids back then to have a phone but this girl actually did. Problem was her dad didn’t show up and wasn’t answering the phone. We couldn’t call mom because she was at work. No one else was programmed into her phone. We spent an hour trying to get ahold of him and another driving around trying to find his house because he had just moved. I ended waking him up when we finally found it. It was a mess. As the team Mom and not a coach I wasn’t obligated to stay with her but everyone had left. There was no way I was leaving this kid in a park to fend for herself.

 

[Hikergirl]

I just want to point out that odds are that's not a true land line. If your internet goes out, I'm guessing you have no phone service. We're the same way. We went away from the traditional land line and have it through our internet (what's technically a VoIP line... Voice over IP).

Linda

If the electricity went out, an old style land line should not go out because of that. We have had our electricity go out many times (reminds me to get that whole house generator I have been putting off) over the past 47 years we have been here, but have never had our old style land line go out. I've used it always in the past to report power outages. Now I use my cell phone CommEd app to report.

We have digital voice through Verizon Fios, my neighbor has something similar though Cablevision. We do not lose phone service if our (public) internet goes out as the phones use a dedicated "internet". If we lose power, I have an 8 hour battery back- up so my phone will still work until that is dead. My neighbor doesn't have a battery back up so she loses her phone service if the power goes out.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Technically it's optional, but really, it isn't.

That sums it all up right there. I completely agree with this statement.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Linda

If the electricity went out, an old style land line should not go out because of that. We have had our electricity go out many times (reminds me to get that whole house generator I have been putting off) over the past 47 years we have been here, but have never had our old style land line go out. I've used it always in the past to report power outages. Now I use my cell phone CommEd app to report.

It did, Dan. As I said, we were hit by lightening and everything went out. Anything that was plugged in was fried. (Cordless phones on all land lines.) So for us, it wasn't just a loss of power; it was a lightening strike that traveled through the phone lines (and started a large fire, as well). Very scary. As a matter of fact, the lightening actually came out my mother's phone line into a "ball lightening" phenomenon the size of a beach ball, which is a ball of electricity hanging out in the air - it's a good thing it didn't touch her or she could've been killed, although she did see it and describe it to first responders, who flew into her house looking around after she said it. (We didn't know what it was at the time.)

I just called DH to confirm all this. He says to tell you it all really happened!

At any rate, everything was dead, including our land line phones. I was only able to call for help on my cell phone.

Ball Lightening: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

 

[Hikergirl]

It did, Dan. As I said, we were hit by lightening and everything went out. Anything that was plugged in was fried. (Cordless phones on all land lines.) So for us, it wasn't just a loss of power; it was a lightening strike that traveled through the phone lines (and started a large fire, as well). Very scary. As a matter of fact, the lightening actually came out my mother's phone line into a "ball lightening" phenomenon the size of a beach ball, which is a ball of electricity hanging out in the air - it's a good thing it didn't touch her or she could've been killed, although she did see it and describe it to first responders, who flew into her house looking around after she said it. (We didn't know what it was at the time.)

I just called DH to confirm all this. He says to tell you it all really happened!

At any rate, everything was dead, including our land line phones. I was only able to call for help on my cell phone.

Ball Lightening: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

Wow that must have been frightening.
I believe you, to this day my Grandmother will hang up the phone when she hears thunder. I try to tell her that she will be OK using a cordless but the "never talk on the phone during a lightning storm" is ingrained in her.
That was a common thing back in the day when I was young before cordless phones. Don't talk on the phone and don't take a shower.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Dd was abt 6th grade as we cancelled our home line and did leave her at home for short times.

This. Youngest got his at 11 as he was taking public transit home and we wanted to cut off the home phone. Older kid was maybe 12 or 13.

ETA : I've never seen an atlas with malls listed. Maybe in a city map book. But an atlas?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Wow that must have been frightening.
I believe you, to this day my Grandmother will hang up the phone when she hears thunder. I try to tell her that she will be OK using a cordless but the "never talk on the phone during a lightning storm" is ingrained in her.
That was a common thing back in the day when I was young before cordless phones. Don't talk on the phone and don't take a shower.

It was. I always heard that as well, and now I know it's true, albeit rare, I'm sure.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It did, Dan. As I said, we were hit by lightening and everything went out. Anything that was plugged in was fried. (Cordless phones on all land lines.) So for us, it wasn't just a loss of power; it was a lightening strike that traveled through the phone lines (and started a large fire, as well). Very scary. As a matter of fact, the lightening actually came out my mother's phone line into a "ball lightening" phenomenon the size of a beach ball, which is a ball of electricity hanging out in the air - it's a good thing it didn't touch her or she could've been killed, although she did see it and describe it to first responders, who flew into her house looking around after she said it. (We didn't know what it was at the time.)

I just called DH to confirm all this. He says to tell you it all really happened!

At any rate, everything was dead, including our land line phones. I was only able to call for help on my cell phone.

Ball Lightening: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

Yikes!!!!! Scary for sure!!! I've heard of ball lightning before. What a phenomena. Glad you mom was okay, as well as your house for the most part.

The fact they are all cordless was probably the reason they went out. Cordless phones are always plugged into electric power. We have a cordless in every room in the house (lots of phones here) but we still keep two phones that are not cordless (so 2 phones in 2 of our rooms, kitchen and family room), still plugged into the old phone outlets, no electricity needed. Our cordless do not work either when power is out, but those 2 non-cordless still work with no electric.

But I do believe you, and your hubby.