Nedanstående inlägg anknyter till tematiken om barn och smarta telefoner. En del försöker skydda sina barn ifrån telefonerna, andra promotar tekniken. Min kollega och vän i underhållningsbranschen, Richard Osterlind, skrev idag en essä med ett innehåll jag sympatiserar med. Jag frågade om jag fick använda hans text, och svaret var positivt. Här kommer alltså Richard Osterlinds kloka ord med benäget tillstånd: 

A Short Essay on Kids and Smart Phones by Osterlind

How many of you have a younger child, maybe 7 or 8 or thereabouts, wanting a smart phone? Maybe even more than wanting, they are almost demanding one? They have to have it because everybody else has one. How many of you just look at the child and say, “You’re too young to have your own phone! How could you possibly think that would be OK? You’re just a kid!”

Think about this, parents. Kids aren’t stupid. They don’t ask to drive the car, do they? They don’t demand to use the power saw to cut down trees or cook fried chicken on the stove. They are smart enough to know those are “adult things.” But what do they see you doing with your Smartphone? Do you spend hours sending texts to your friends about every small incident in life? Do you watch videos of people doing absurd things like falling off tables while singing or idiots wearing PJ’s in Walmart? Do you get caught up with video games that trap you into playing endlessly or constantly take pictures and Selfies to send to your friends every chance you get? Do you check in to your Facebook account 2 or 3 times an hour to see what’s going on? In short, do you use your Smartphone to fill in every second that you are bored? Not let me ask you; are these really “adult things” or are they “Kid things?”

Why wouldn’t your children want to have the same kind of fun as you? You lead by example, so what kind of example are you sending here? You show them Smartphones are fun and occupy every spare second of your time and then turn around and tell them they can’t have one! I was recently in a doctor’s office. Small kids were running around going nuts tearing up the joint with nothing to do. Meanwhile, every single adult in the room, even the senior citizens, were oblivious to the action and had their head buried in their phones!

Am I saying go out and buy your kids Smartphones? No, not at all. That’s the kind of choice you have to make as a parent. But what I am just saying is don’t act like them wanting one is the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard! If you were a kid again, you’d want one, too!