My son just turned 14 and does not have a smartphone. When he graduated from Grade 8 he was the only kid in his class without one. He asks for a phone1 he's going to high school. I say no, he asks why, I explain ( yet again ), and he pushes back.
"You can choose to do things2 when you're a parent，"I told him. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm being too stubborn or unfair. However, the more researches I do, the more3 I feel in my decision. Many studies4 the current mental health crisis among adolescents to fundamental changes in the5 from in-person to online interaction.
But other parents6 my idea. "He must feel so left out !" Then there are the parents who tell me with7 that they wish they had put off their teenager's phone ownership longer than they did. They urge me to8 .
If teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 are truly spending an average of 8 hours 39 minutes per day on their devices, then what are they not doing? Kids9 in their devices are missing out on real life, and that strikes me as really sad. I want my son to have a childhood he feels10 with and proud of. I want it to be full of11 ，imaginative play and physical challenges which he must sort out himself without asking for me at the push of a button. The easiest and simplest way to achieve these goals is to12 giving him a smartphone.
Some think my son is missing out or falling behind, but he is not. He does well in school, hangs out with his friends in person, and moves around our small town13 .
He swears he'll give his own 14-year old a phone someday, and I tell him that's fine. But recently, he14 that he missed the beautiful scenery on a drive to a nearby mountain because he had been so abandoned to his friend's iPad. If that is his version of admitting I'm15 I'll take it.
