24.
“It won’t work. It’s counterproductive. Here’s an anecdote (I’m French, so directly impacted): When my kids moved from primary to middle school, we considered giving them dumb phones to give them some autonomy. We did not want to give them smartphones, precisely to avoid them being exposed too early. Moving from primary school (where all kids got to know each other for years) to middle school (with more students and more anonymity) is often a small trauma at this age. You will lose quite a few friends, too, who will go to a different middle school. Some parents in the class, therefore, had the (brilliant but cursed) idea of creating a WhatsApp group for the class. All parents were forced to give their kids a smartphone. How can a parent tell their kids ‘Sorry, you will be an outcast to your classmates. I won’t buy you a smartphone so you can stay in touch’? So at 11, all the kids got access to social media. But it turned out great.”
“For a few years, there were regular gatherings of the kids who exchanged a lot, and even eight years later, many kids are still in touch. They go to parties together, thanks to their early access to social media, in a very protected way.
This made me revise my stance: Technological progress, such as the internet, mobile, smartphones, and now GenAI, is stronger than us. Rather than fighting it, it is wiser to embrace it and try to make the best of it.“
—u/thbb
