LISTEN TO THE PLUGGED IN SHOW, EPISODE 260
Christmas is coming. Just flip on a football game or walk through a grocery store and you’ll see plenty of evidence of that. And that means that many a parent is asking themselves a critical and often vexing question: Should I get my child a phone for Christmas?
For many a teen—and let’s be honest, a preteen, too—a phone might be the biggest thing on their Christmas wish list. Getting a phone can feel almost like a rite of passage these days. And for kids who have friends who already have phones themselves, it can feel like an absolute social necessity.
But is it?
Kennedy Unthank, Jonathan McKee and I talk about the pros and cons of giving and getting phones. We offer some strong thoughts on when you should start considering a phone, as well as some pragmatic guidelines on keeping phone usage in check.
And, as we look forward to a busy movie week next week, we talk about one you might not have heard about as much as Wicked or Gladiator II—but maybe you should’ve. It’s called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin. And it’s based on, of course, the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who embraced pacifism but came to believe that something needed to be done about Adolf Hitler.
Kennedy saw the movie, and he’ll give us a sneak peek of the film before we even post our official review.
So please join us, won’t you? And then join in the conversation. Thinking about getting your child a phone? When did you get your own phone—and do you think it was too soon or too late? Do you plan on seeing Bonhoeffer?
Let us know below in the comments section. Chime in on Facebook and Instagram. Go to The Plugged In Show homepage and leave us a voice message. Or write us an email at [email protected].
And be sure to listen next week when we talk Wicked and the wonderful world of musicals.
5 Responses
I’m not planning on seeing “Bonhoeffer” since it’s been heavily criticized for allowing his legacy to be appropriated by ‘Christian’ Nationalists. (“Bonhoeffer was not like that!” ~ Zeit Online; ““Deeply concerned about abuse by Christian nationalists in the USA”: Actors in the film about the Nazi opponent Dietrich Bonhoeffer defend themselves” ~ Carlo Mariani, NZZ)
Bonhoeffer came up in my studies many years ago during my time in college and I heard a classmate best describe him as a “faithful admirer of the Gospel, but fearful of delving headfirst into the unknown waters” which was a reference to his denial of Christ’s virgin birth amongst other things. I think witnessing an entire nation blindly follow the word of a supposed savior figure may have turned him off from believing the “mythological” aspects of Scripture as he did not want himself to become a sheep in a sense. That is why I was shocked to learn who was behind this film as Bonhoeffer would be the farthest from a fundamentalist. However, the extreme Christian right is actually protesting this film, no surprise there, due to their insistence on the Nazi’s being a so called Christian movement clashing against the film’s correct portrayal of the Nazi party. I did hear Angel Studios are offering free tickets to anti-semites in order to prove them wrong, so in a way I suppose this might be the Lord’s way of turning back what was meant for evil into good, because the meltdown over the film by such people is pretty hilarious. I will end on this, I never thought I would hear Disturbed music in a religious film, let alone see their official channel comment on the film’s trailer. Interesting all around.
As for cell phones, I still use a flip phone since my Kyocera is tanky and blessed with a good battery life, I have an iPod Touch for anything that requires Internet access (and young children do not need unrestricted, unmonitored Internet access, inside or outside of school), and I don’t like having my whole life on one device that could be lost or broken. My parents got me a flip phone when I was in middle or high school so they’d have a way to contact me in case of emergencies.
I applaud your efforts to continue using flip phones. My workplace has put QR codes on flyers with no alternative web addresses listed and wants us to fill in online forms after educational events before leaving the classroom. This and places like church events and Six Flags requiring phone apps to access all the information/benefits make it hard to replace the smartphone.
Exactly this here. I typically walk around without a smartphone during outings due to the tracking hardware embedded in the device, but if I can find a good flip phone I will see if I can have it for personal use. Work forces a smartphone, but I avoid every opportunity possible. The smartphone has expanded beyond what it should have been to almost becoming a third limb the newer generation cannot live without, which is dangerous in that it removed the discovery of self-dependence into situations where its simply “look it up on the iphone”. The minimization of the attention span is also troubling as how will the upcoming generation be able to focus if they have no reference of a time before smartphones due to being an “ipad kid”? Why should a parent set their child up for failure like that and instead try to pursue a one to one human relation to show children the beauty of humanity’s capability for interaction?