Is it a good idea for young people to have cell phones?
More than one doctor has called it the great social experiment. As an example she points to one of her patients, a three year old little boy who can play angry birds and unlock his parents Iphone without a problem, but who cannot say a word or read or write. How will it change our mental wiring to have such early exposure to such advanced technology—and is it a good idea? There certainly are cases where it is. Technology is now an inextricable part of education, business, and social culture and teaching a child how to type and access different features on multiple platforms will serve them well for the rest of their days. But what about the downside? Diminished imagination, social contact, reading skills, and more have been demonstrated. But perhaps iPads, iPhones, tablets, and smartphones for babies is only changing the learning curve, rather than ruining it. Then again maybe it is training our young ones to be even more hyper active and taking away what hope of an attention span we once had for them. And there are other dangers. Few parents invest in good tablet, smartphone, iPad parental controls or spy on computer software to insulate their children from exposure to harmful, threatening, or objectionable material, much less from sexting and other peer to peer emotional abuse. Cyber bullying is now a multi platform threat. If you do allow your child early access to technology make sure you regulate it with software protection as well as time limits. And also balance this exposure with reading time and real interpersonal time as well—as no technology can eliminate the importance for good parenting.