Dear Dingo:
I was researching a teen comments board about the appropriate age to get an iPhone, and was kind of sickened by how many young (preteen) kids used the words "depressed" and "crying", in regards to how they felt about not having an iPhone. Apparently, the world ends if fellow peers "social updates" are not followed every hour of the day. Do parents really feel this is the appropriate way to raise the next generation of children?
Answer:
Homo sapiens have an incredible need to "follow the pack", dogs and wolves understand this innate desire well, as it is quite useful for cohesion in a tribal system or hunting on the Tundra. However, this instinct becomes entirely maladaptive when it impedes a parent's ability to say "no" to fancy phones and technology.
Nobody wants to be mocked for being 'left out of the social media pack". So this ridiculous device, used primarily for porn and cyber bullying, becomes the new necessity...
Studies already show teen anxiety surging, but only time will tell how much shorter attention spans will become, or how much lewdness becomes normalized. (Disregard the president elect, whose childhood rotary phone apparently led to the same offensive behaviors....;)
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