[adamzapasnik]

I think a lot of people are missing the point. That could be attributed to the poor title, though.

The way I see it, pre-phone their daughter was probably much more engaged with her parents and was doing more manual creative stuff. After the phone appeared, she distanced herself and got absorbed by it.

I don't get why so many people here are trying to defend smartphones/social media?

Isn't it pretty obvious they are addictive? And to a young kid, that doesn't know any better, it can get really bad.

[sequoia]

Agreed that these can be bad (my kids have some socials but I keep an eye on them and have lots of talks about pitfalls to avoid), but for the sake of argument I can't help pointing out that what you're describing is a normal process of individuation that teens all go through.

Social attention focused inward toward family --> Social attention turning outward towards others + establishing an identity apart from that of the family. This is totally normal.

[donmcronald]

Some apps are addictive, not all of them. The biggest problem IMO is that "no phone" isn't an option. Kids need a phone to participate in society. That's just the way it is. The problem I see is that phones have super addictive apps like TikTok that target young kids, so giving them the "good half" of a phone means you also end up giving them the "bad half" and kids aren't good at understanding why the bad half is bad for them.

It's like serving a kid a plate of food with vegetables and meth side-by-side and the meth dealer is making every effort they can to push the meth into the vegetables.

[Jyaif]

Is being addicted to creating tiktkok/instagram content to get likes such a bad thing? The fight to stand out on those social networks forces you to be creative.

[sibeliuss]

I'd argue that the fight to stand out on these networks forces you, rather, into a low-level depression.

[JoeCianflone]

Its the job of the parent to set limits.