What do you folks have to say.

It's like my daughter's husband.

These damn people with these silly phones. If I say any more I will get banned by the moderators.

Not just kids. My older sister, pushing 60 is addicted to her phone. Impossible to have any conversation without her glancing at her phone every 15 seconds. And when she does engage, it's one word answers.

Freaking rude AF! I just walk away and don't really interact. If she wants to have a normal human conversation with me anymore, she better put the phone away.

So disrespectful.

I teach HS. They cannot use a phone in class but as soon as they hit a hallway the phones come out. It almost takes dynamite to separate a kid from their phones. Phones are creating a generation of idiots living in a 2 inch world view and that is intentional because that generation will be very easy to control in the near future.

Absolutely not. Giving our kids cell phones was the biggest mistake we made. They are nothing but portals to Hell.

If you are going to give your kid a cell phone, make it a calls-only model and maybe...maybe text.

Cilly phones and tattooes get the ‘fire boomers twisted up…



😂😂😂😂😳😳👍😂😂


( except the campfire new hounds - they love the Faux news alerts )

I'll bet 1/2 the posts on this forum are posted by people in their 60s and 70s, and many posts come from their phones. It is what it is....

I see every bit as many boomers and Gen X glued to their phones in stores, restaurants, while stopped at red lights, etc. as I do millennials and Gen Y. EVERY BIT. That isn't to say it isn't an issue, but I am saying it isn't limited to 'young' people.

Its a shítty deal.....because that is how the kids communicate now.

You can't bow up and tell them to "call" their friends like we used to.


That isn't really a thing anymore....no matter how much we want it to be.

If possible....try and limit it to talk and text. There are parental controls available too.


Cell phones are kind of a necessary evil now.....but Snap Chat, Face Book Instagram and tik tok are not.


Don't let your kid have that shįt.

I hate what they've done to society. Unless I'm expecting a really important call or update, mine stays in the car. What really pisses me off are the restaurants that want you to "scan a code", rather than give you a freakin' menu. I walk out. Also, parking meters are being phased out and they expect you to download some sort of "ap" to pay your quarter. Ain't doin' it...

It would be worth your time to watch "The Social Dilemma" on Netflix.

It's not just the kids but they're starting this addiction young.

You're fixin' to start trouble Sonny.

It's across all age groups ..... for the Boomer haters out there ...... there IS a marked decrease in cell phone addiction once folks get to be in their 60's.

Where?

The morgue?

Oh hi there! You want to see pictures of my latest great grand child???

It will only take a second......

This, except it is FAR worse that MAC describes.

It brings out the absolute worst in people in so many ways. I've seen a drastic, dramatic, measureable decline in performance across numerous different areas or content and, worse, skills.

It is bad.

GFY Conrad.

The Eagles nailed it! We're all prisoners of our own device.

And your point is ??????

No doubt, a bunch of hypocrites reside here.

So how you gonna do that Einstein?

Most everyone has a phone in their hand. I do as I peck this.

Thinking that if we could have an honest figure on just how many vehicle crashes are caused by phone distractions it would be scary.

My kids are 10 and 12. He is addicted to anything with a screen. Caused by my wife putting a tablet in front of him when he was a toddler to keep him occupied at restaurants while waiting for our food. Current status is he can't look at any screen (tv, phone, tablet, video game, etc) without express permission from us, and that permission is pretty infrequent, unless he's done a substantial amount of chores and been outside. Luckily, at this point, he tests off the charts in every standardized test administered to him for reading/math/sciences.

For phones, they both have a Gabb phone, talk and text only (with our access to call logs and the texts from computer/our phones), no picture capabililities, with a GPS locator in it we can track where they're at, not that we don't know exactly where they are at all times anyway. Daughter goes in spurts where she annoys friends and families with stupid texts and then won't touch it for weeks. Son, current status is its turned off and out of his possession or he'd be texting and calling friends all day long.

I get a gut punch every time I see my grandkids, even when they have their friends with them, not being able to just enjoy each others company. It goes way beyond that too, as has been mentioned.

Day before yesterday I was talking to an Amish man that I am going to have do some work for me. We got that out of the way and I told him I really admire the way they seem to have close knit families. He remarked "we don't have TV or cell phones to distract us". Good point.

One of our nephews held his phone out to me and my wife and remarked that he held everything in his hand he needs. Sad.

Agreed.

I only use my smart phone to make calls, text & take photos of fish or game killed. My last text was this past Saturday. I am in my 60's. Only go on the internet while at home using my laptop.

More laws, they're always the best answer :sarcasm:. Even a red state like Montana likes to push new laws on people...

I have zero clue how it'll ever be enforced, and a person can just hop the border to a new state to download it, but this is one path, I guess.

Not really .... there is this Old School thing called a PC. When I am outside, or driving, or whatever my phone is for phone calls. Matter of fact, my phone is for phone calls all the time.

I heard one at the gout doctors office man in the wait room with his made sounds like a duck quacking. Thought I was hearing a toy. First for me.

99% of what young people convey is dribble. Why they have targeted that form of communication as all important, learned behavior. The bane of society today is the “look at Me” need for attention.

Go to a sporting event of youth and note how many watching parents are actually watching their phones. Drive thru the urban areas and it seems any parent walking a small child is watching a phone in the other hand. I see them pushing strollers down sidewalks while staring at phones. I’ve seen family gatherings and group picnics where the majority of heads are bowed to the mystical phone. Bicycles with youth seats on the back and a phone mount on the handle bars. Youth are left to one form of attention the dam imagination stealing phone.

Without adult interaction from the earliest years explaining the world the youth see, what is right and what is wrong, and just giving them attention why should we expect anything different than the whacked out selfish society we’re getting. A phone doesn’t teach reality like a good parent does, it teaches the opposite.

Guiding fishing groups in the far north in areas with no service it sure is noticeable night by night the increase in communication and talk of the days events along with more inclusive activities like crib and gin games. I know the guys and gals go right back to the electronics when they leave camp but at least I see a bit of the old ways.

Those phones while needed have become a terrible thing in the hands of youth, and even more so to “parents”. The next Apple I phone won’t be called 15… it will be called mom. The heavier version with more pre loaded porn will be called the Dad model. Welcome to the future.

Osky

It's probably a lot. But the number of vehicle crashes has declined in relation to the number of cars on the road in recent years. I'm thinking that the same people who can't drive with a cellphone can't drive without one. They have something to blame it on now.

If the govt wants to ban something....cell phones would be a good place to start. I have one but don't use it much. I'm an club officer and members sometimes call me when repairs need done. They can be a real PITA at times. If I'm at the gun club or gun show I usually leave my phone in the truck. I'm surprised some of these people don't just have their phone implanted to the side of their head.

Or, if we could just have an honest figure on ………

Truth…..

So what's bad enough about tiktok that Montana is banning it? I have never looked at it, don't have a cell phone either.

https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-montana-325a33578a2bbfbe53e9c251d528c5fb

The intent is to prevent the CCP (Tik Toc is a Chinese owned internet ecosystem platfrom) from gaining access to sensitive American intel. What most people don't realize is that, while considered inane, platforms like Tik Toc provide an easy access into the WWW ecosystem and a back door into unsuspecting user accounts.

Here is a major difference, your older types can put the phone aside and still function. You take a phone away from a kid and they are worthless and shut completely down.

I have a phone but have no problem leaving it at home or turning it off for several days at a stretch and you will never see a kid do that

^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^

Exactly like my oldest sister. She is pushing 60 too and it's the same thing. She'll drive an hour and a half to "visit" our parents and sit on her phone the whole time. Pathetic.

I'll totally buy that older folks can function better without their phones in a general sense, but I will not buy that if you take a phone away from a kid and they are worthless and shut completely down. Some I am sure---but plenty do fine without their phones for hours if not a couple days. My 22 year old nephew is fine without his, and so is at least one of his friends. I constantly see retirement aged folks, doing nothing but looking at their phones. It isn't right, wrong or indifferent.


How many of you all are reading this very thread on your phone? I'll bet at least 1/2.

The Iphone is a destructive device and causes major harm to young kids.
My brother's grandson won't take karate lessons. Won't play soccer, refuses to get a [free] bicycle from my brother.
Instead, it is 17 hours a day on the damn Iphone.

It isn't just the kids.
My old paramedic buddy, Tony, was up here for a party 12 years ago, we sat there for 2 hours talking about wild ambulance calls we ran, nurses we "knew" etc. He had a flip phone.
Two years ago he was up here, he was 60 years old, we would talk for 2 minutes, 3 minutes max, and then he pulled out his Iphone, for a minimum 4 minute texting session. Two minutes of live conversation, followed by 4 minutes of texting. It went that way nonstop for 2 days. I haven't invited Tony back.

Big Brother is watching YOU!

L.W.

You cannot depend on cell phones. They're traceable on January 6th, but signals for voters at remote ballot boxes are not reliable.

Check the corners of random cars.......you can easily detect those that use their cell phones too much.

It's hit and run bumper cars out there.

That's good 👍

Comical thread.

Sheesh...what a baby.



You can place parental controls on your kids phones.
Time limits, block various sites, be able to monitor all of it.

On second thought...you might as well tip over and wail about how all is lost.

Oh fugg off Gramps!


You may be riding a kids saddle yet but you ain't no kid.


No need for laws at all...just parental controls on kids phones....and also it helps to act like a parent and set limits and stick to them.


The biggest group of people bitching about the kids and phones......gave the kids phones so they wouldn't have to parent or interact with their dumb kids.



Fact.

People bitching about cell phones and social media use with tens of thousands of posts on this website..🤣🤣🤣

So much angst and virtue signaling.

Addicted^

Jim1611: I am seeing warning signs that our younger generations are NOT as social and "normal acting" as previous generations that grew up, NOT, glued to their "smart phones/electronics"!
I worry about this "addiction", and also worry about the less than "well rounded" young adults and what they are now turning into (witness slumload and skhunt).
I worry about the future of our young people/society/country - and I think electronics and phone addiction is part of the problems we are seeing today.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It's not really the phone itself that's the problem. It's the ability to access social media or media in general that's the problem. It gets folks, especially kids, hooked on quick hits of dopamine. That, combined with constant access, creates an addiction.

Smart phones are great otherwise. Sure makes working in the field a lot easier. Having access to maps, plans, and GPS is a serious time saver. Teams calls right from the truck, instead of having to meet up in some office and waste half a day on travel.

Did anyone mention that he doesnt have a job or the means to feed himself or pay for the $1100 digital toys? Great opportunity to disable it and shut down the 'net at home and then say "but what about your device?" or some such.

The smart phone issue, and it IS an issue, is the 800lb gorilla in the room in our society. Its impacts are far worse than most imagine.

It cant possibly be overstated.

Turn it off. Cancel the plan. Pop the Simm. Period. He doesnt have the ability to turn it on. At the very least, he'll get a job to get what he wants.

i cant speak for the low accident rate in rural areas, nor in urban centers. In suburbia, the figure is roughly 100%. Not exactly, but roughly.

I cant find anything to disagree with here. You are not wrong.

Not really. It's people discussing problems they have seen in the manner in which YOUNG PEOPLE access & use their cell phones/smart devices.

There's a difference.

What some old employed white dude (most of this site, Id guess?) does is a far cry from what impressionable children do during thier most formative years.

Its actually night and day.

But... conflate away if it helps you ring your bell.

Wonder how many old people’s lives were ruined when they were young by a stick and a hoop…….

Had to laugh at my nephew. Little fugger would look at his phone for hours. We have him crap about being addicted to his phone and not wanting to do much else. He walked out into his Dad’s shop one day, started piling wood up next to the table saw and mitre saw, asked my brother in law for some basic instruction, and built himself spartan but very fictional desk.

Some week later, he walks out, same deal, but asks where the power switch is on the welder. Brother in law shows him, he starts running beads, practicing, welding pieces together, and taught himself how to weld. He’s pretty good.

Turns out he was learning all this stuff on YouTube on his phone.

Now he’s 19, while he looks at his phone a lot, nobody gives him much crap about it anymore. He’s pretty handy around the shop, and he can 3-D print some prettty cool stuff (again, learned how on his phone). Works a job in town while an engineering major in college.

But he can’t drive a stick shift so his whole life is probably screwed…..this place is hilarious sometimes…..

Very well-stated, crockett. The devastating impact of Iphones has hardly been understood.

Ha! Suck it!
You know my 'laws' comment was 100% sarcasm, and I totally agree phones are necessary today, to know about sport practice schedules, and whatever else. It is just the way things are becoming. That doesn't mean kids need every possible app out there and from what I understand, it isn't too terribly difficult to restrict access to particular apps. I guess there could also be ways to get around those restrictions too, just like Gianforte's stupid ass new law.

I kind of see parallels with restrictive parents and actual laws though....I hope some parents out there are getting their kids to want to not spend their lives on their phones but I am sure it is tough to do that when the parents (and grandparents) do the same. Reminds me of a lot of us here on the 'Fire.

I have to say this is a stupid question.

It's bullshit when a parent tells his kids they can't have a phone...and they is glued to the phone all day.

The kids are bored AF...sitting around watching their parents spend their free time on a phone.


Gotta set the example. Go shoot something.

My daughter is 12, we just recently got her a phone. She stays home alot alone and with no landline....things could go bad fast. It does not go to school with her, no social media ( we monitor it) but she can text or call her friends. She's good with the rules....for now

About time you added something useless.

I don't believe the smart phone is the 800 lb gorilla in the room. The fact that kids with parents that don't know or don't care about parental controls definitely is.

These kids have access to porn at their finger tips. In our day, we were lucky if someone was successful in stealing a penthouse.

The porn industry needs to be shut down. It has corrupted adult minds for years.

Think about what that is doing to the developing teen/pre-teen brain...

I'll admit to being hooked on the internet.


And to some extent everyone else I know.

If you are savvy to the Jr Woodchucks Guidebook, Wikipedia is close.

Dude, you spend 14 hours a day watching grasshoppers eat your alfalfa as fast as you can cut it. I'd have a big screen mounted to the front of the swather and a bottle of tequila in my lunch box!


LOL

Wab's? You been breathing too much of that Canadian smoke?

Haven't seen that here in the Outback of Cali.

We still have menus.

Although I have noticed some of the stores have the "wave the phone" over the credit card machine deal.

We don't have parking meters either. Probably get the Cool Hand Luke treatment if they did.

Good enough way to handle it.

Cheers brother!

Cheers buddy!

1980 my wife was designing a radio frequency synthesizer to sell to Motorola to create cell phones.
2000 I was designing power supplies for cell towers in China.
2020 our son was writing code for the android cell phones.

Today I had grandkids on my lap showing them videos on my cell phone. Donald Duck cartoons made in the 1930s are popular with the kids.

Last I saw, it was more than drunks.

A few years back I was talking with the Culinary Instructor at the voc school in Kotzebue. He told me that the day before, after warning an 18 year old student several times to put the phone away, he took it away from the student until after class.

The student cried.

Instructor then added, "And the girls are even worse!"

On the upside, a lot of people really don't listen to people when they speak, they hear them but they just don't listen.

They will have some presumed idea of what's going to be said after the first few words and immediately start thinking of their response instead of listening a person out.

Same people will read a text and comprehend it in its entirety, and it's documented, they can go back and reread it if needed.

Due to that, I'll often text workers on my job sites, even though I'm on the same site as they. It's the details that count sometimes.

I know people that text family members when they are in the same home with them at the same time.

It's the weird stuff, I got out of the shower 15 minutes ago and saw I had a text from my girlfriend, it says this, 'dinners at 6:30 at the Vintage, i made reservations yesterday. You need to pick up Ben at his office on the way there. His wife is going to be running late and she'll meet us at the restaurant.'

She's in my bedroom, I though she was still sleeping.

I don't have to remember any of that schit, I'll just go back and read her text again when I forget what time our reservations are this afternoon after I get done with my day, with a little luck I won't forget to stop and pick up my friend Ben.

You have just demonstrated how Iphones have taken over people's lives. It used to be called "the art of conversation" and people used to listen to the words that other people spoke to them.
These days, words spoken to a person's face are ignored, while full attention is paid to the Iphone.
The Iphone is like a religious cult and most people have joined.

Well, you see, you must be wrong on this. Everything is fine. Because some kid wrote cut-and-paste code for an app or build a desk or watched a mark rober video. All is well, you see.

Less tongue in cheek, I think you hit the nail on the head.

It’s what you make of it.

Does it cause problems? Sure. It can.

Do i hate having a weather radar, or YouTube videos while working on something, or convenient shopping, or info in my hand? No.

It’s handy.

I’d rather someone txt me. Keeps me from having to listen to their rambling…

ESP handy for groups. Send one txt and everyone knows what the plan is….

#boomerskeepbooming

Since 1/2/20 I have had the distinct displeasure of spending hours in doctor's offices waiting to be seen. At one time, people stuck waiting would talk to each other even if it was only discussing their ailments, but at least they were talking. Seems like these days as soon as they've checked in and sat down to wait their turn, out comes the cell phone, some texting, some playing games. Nobody converses anymore with the fellow man, not even senior or near senior citizens. It's not only just the kids anymore.
PJ

The thread is not the benefits and drawbacks of cell phones or smart devices, its about their use in YOUNG people. its not about old geezers like you, its about kids in their formative years mentally, socially, and physically, altering their activities or forgoing developing others.

Its a huge issue.

That a bunch of 30 or 60 year old guys like cells for convenience or killing time isnt the question here.