Hissy Fit - November 2021 - Get Off the Phone: And Save the Children

November 2021 Issue
by Elizabeth Skenes Millen 

A parent received an email from her son’s teacher:
Sam is often unfocused and is on his phone during class.
The problem: The parent, the teacher, the principal, the school,
the superintendent and the school board. Why?
Because they are allowing students to have cell phones in the classroom.

We all now know smart phones are highly addictive, and there is proof that app and technology innovators purposely inject the phone with addictive tech widgets. Isn’t this the same as when tobacco manufacturers laced their cigs with toxic additives known to cause addiction? The tobacco industry got smoked to the tune of trillions of dollars in law suits and lost sales. That hasn’t happened to big tech yet, but I foresee it coming once we are all too messed up to put our phones down long enough to go to work or school.

Why are we setting children up for failure? This is exactly what we are doing in allowing cell phones in the classroom. It’s like giving an alcoholic a bottle of whiskey, asking them to take it along every where they go, and insisting they never take a sip. Purely ridiculous when you think about it that way, isn’t it?

If I could tell parents one thing and know they would listen and take action, it would be this: Manage your children’s cell phone usage. If you don’t, you are literally inhibiting them from their best life. Phones are addictive. That’s why children pitch holy terror fits if you attempt to take it away. Drug and alcohol addicts behave the same way when their “vices” are confiscated. Please get through your mind the level of addiction to smart phones children are experiencing. They cannot control themselves; it is designed to be addictive! It’s not a coincidence smart phones are called “cells”; they are completely imprisoning.

It will be difficult, maybe the biggest fight you’ve ever had with your child, but for their well being and future, take the cell away during school, homework time, family time, dinner time, restaurant time, sports time, play time and any time you just feel like it. “Because I said so” is as good a reason as any!

I am shocked that cell phones are allowed in the classroom. We weren’t even allowed to have gum because it was too distracting. I can’t imagine being a teacher and having to compete with every student in class having a phone. My outrage wants to scream, “Who thinks this is ok? Who is allowing this? Why are we all in denial? When will we all wake up? Is this a bad dream? Has every one lost all ability to reason? Who is going to fix it?

There are things out there that people debate as real or not—man ever going to the moon, climate change, Lizard Man over in Bishopville, SC, but there is no debate that technology is changing people. It is said that in less than 10 years, we will only want news in video format in less than 20 second clips. That’s right, we won’t have the capacity—let that sink in, the capacity—to pay attention any more than that.

The scariest part is cell phone addictions are changing brain physiology, and parents are ignoring it. Research has shown that over use of cell phones and technology can cause eye strain at the very least and isolation, depression, and suicide at the horrific most. Everyone is so comfortably lulled with their children being occupied for hours on end, no one wants to change it because that just might get uncomfortable. Adults would also have to check back in to reality and parent more. Here’s the trade off for the effort, and it’s a good one: You get your child back from being held hostage by their cell.

As a parent, if you allow your children to live on their phones in tech land, guess what: You are forfeiting the influence of your and your family’s values, morals and traditions. Basically, you are allowing all that Internet and app chatter cluck to be the largest, most influential “being” in your child’s life. This is splintering families and harming children at breakneck speed. Children are withdrawn, they are angry, they are exposed, and everyone is forgetting that they are just children—little ones who can’t handle the overwhelming stimulation of what and how much they are exposed to on the Internet. Is this really what you want your sweeties entranced in? No matter what, if you continue to allow your child to be glued to their cell, that is what will happen, whether you want it or not. If you want to be woke, wake up to the danger of smart phones.

Hey, Earth to moms, dads, teachers, principals, schools, superintendents, school boards and anyone else who wants future kind, productive, engaged citizens: It’s time to Rethink and
Re-engage! Fire the tech nanny! Save the children!