Cell Phones

I don't see any reason for a 14 year old to have a cell phone. Cell phones are time-wasters, distractions, and can easily generate charges in excess of $100 per month. The typical teenager can't be expected to use one responsibly; also I didn't have one when I was a kid, and nothing bad happened.

That's the shpiel I plan to give my my kids once they're old enough to start asking for their own devices. As a rejection, it has the merits of being logical, realistic, and true, and I believe the typical teenager can recognize that the argument is sensible. He may not agree, but he won't think I'm out of my mind, or insulting his inteligtance.

Meanwhile, over in Charadistan, where they are both out of their minds, and glad to insult the intelligance of their readers, a different anti-cell phone argument is being employed. It goes something like this:

“The father of a prominent family called me up and said, ‘I gave my children the best chinuch possible, sent them to the best yeshivos.Then my son gave me all the reasons why he must have a cell phone, and I eventually gave in and bought him one. Two months later he was out of yeshiva.’

Not scary enough? The post continues:

Because of the prevalence of forwarding jokes via text, it is not uncommon for a joke from a girl to reach that of an unknown boy – perhaps a brother’s friend. A casual response “liked your joke!” can be enough to trigger a relationship that can result in tragedy."

In other words, if you give your kid a cell phone, you can expect him to be shacked up, and OTD by the time the seasons change. Such a claim is manifestly false -thousands if not hundreds of thousands of teenagers have managed to both own cell phones and stay true to religious ideals - and because anyone with an IQ of more than 15 knows that it is false other, more legitimate anti-cell phone arguments are undermined, and the credibility of the parent or teacher using such an argument is shot.

PS: You won't be surprised to learn that the Charadistan post referenced above is essentially an advertorial for "Purely Voice." Though it's not labeled as an advert, my hunch is that money changed hands.

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