SAVING CHILDHOOD

Parents always need a means of communion with their children and thus the need for a phone, but the thing is that a lot of parents have no idea what the child does, talkless what they do with a phone in their hand. Raising a kid is not an easy thing, especially when you need to work and go the extra mile to put food on the table. Growing up I failed to realize parents were also humans who were just trying to figure out their lives. I mean come to think of it, I was already two years old when my dad was my age. Now I wonder can I say I could take care of a family conveniently at this age? It’s not just about the money. If I try to raise a family now, I will be the very thing I hated my dad for. The fact that he never had time for us as kids made me not like him as a child, and raising a kid now, I feel I will do even worse than my dad did.

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Now Imagine I have a child, not knowing their excesses, and then handing them a smartphone. The risk of this is just so great that the thought of it scares the hell out of me. I know the things I did with a smartphone at the age of 11, I know how much it affected me growing up, and I know how many kids like me and what they also did with a phone. I also know not every kid will be exposed even without guidance but I think those children who didn’t get the privilege of handling a smartphone until they were at least 16 to 18 had a safer childhood than some of us. I do not think that having a phone at an early age is bad, but feel that for a child to have a phone, then a very good amount of control is needed by the parents.

I believe in saving the childhood of a person, and that is the only reason I will advise not giving children the privilege of owning a phone. I feel children who do not have access to phones in their childhood find other ways to play and have fun without phones. They are safe from an early stage of phone addiction, and although they might be addicted as adults, it would be a willing decision and not the parent’s fault. A lot of the introverts we have today would not have been as introverted as they are if they had not used phones as children. Most of them became phone addicts as children because that was their safe space. It’s always running to the phone to play games when they are bored instead of playing with their friends or siblings.

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They do not know how to resolve conflicts with their mates, because they never got into a fight with their mates and resolved it. They don't know how to look a person in the eye, because they are used to looking down into their phones. For some, they have become so techy, and less human because they rarely associate with people but instead were always with their phones which at a time was their comfort zone. Now that attitude is giving birth to the social media trolls who do not have the balls to speak up in real life. It has given birth to lazy humans, who were always used to viewing the world with their phones. I think every child should be allowed to be children, and shielded from the negativities the world has to offer and gradually think about how to handle real life matters as confident humans who do not need their phones all the time.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 167 EPISODE 1