If only I had encountered your refreshingly practical perspective before we made decisions with our teens about their smartphones! I recognize my own paranoia around needing to be able to reach them as a MAJOR player in creating the problems we're dealing with now, and I dearly wish some of my choices in this department had been different.
I really enjoyed this piece, you have such a balanced perspective on these topics which i find very reassuring.
I've been shocked recently to learn that its not uncommon for parents to constantly track their teenager's location via smartphone for 'safety' reasons. This seems like it could easily backfire by encouraging teenagers to leave their phone behind if they're going somewhere they don't want their parents to know about (I know I would have done this myself!).
I love these articles. I focus so much on the health and environmental aspects that I tend to forget about all the other social, psychological and relationship impacts. Here's my own journey of awakening FWIW :)
LEVEL 1
Smartphones are destroying our children's development, social skills, culture, basic life skills, mental health.
LEVEL 2
Smartphones are toxic time bombs which cause cancer and infertility. The four top cancers are now brain, colon, thyroid and testicular, mirroring where people hold (or store) their smartphones.
LEVEL 3
Wireless infrastructure has caused a 75% - 100% decline in insects over the last 30 years (since the explosion of consumer cell phones). Now birds are dropping out of the skies too. Wireless technology (cell phones, wifi, smart meters etc) requires the entire planet to be blanketed in non-native microwave radiation which is alien (and toxic) to all biological life. Insects got hit first, but as the radiation smog intensifies the effects are moving up the food chain. Yuri Grigoriev, the radiation expert who was brought in to help with the Chernobyl clean up stated that non ionising radiation poses a greater risk to humanity than ionising radiation, because it is completely out of control. The official industry 'safety limit' is set thousands of times higher than the levels proven to cause biological effects. The only safe limit for microwave radiation is the natural background level, which is effectively zero.
LEVEL 4
Millions of people are already getting sick from microwave poisoning. Most are still misdiagnosed or simply ignored. Many have had to move out of the city to live in log cabins, camper vans or in their cars to get away from the cell towers and wifi. France and Russia have now banned wifi from schools because the kids can't concentrate, get headaches, palpitations, anxiety, depression etc (all known symptoms of microwave poisoning). Many other countries are also starting to remove it from schools. The telecoms industry does NOT claim it is safe, but simply states it falls below the official guidelines (which means nothing), while at the same time warning its shareholders to expect a tsunami of health related lawsuits in the coming years from sick and injured customers (chronic fatigue, cancers etc). Even the major insurers will not touch wireless infrastructure with a barge pole. Most of it is uninsured (and therefore illegal). FOIA requests have exposed that even politicians (all bought and paid for, just like the media) have no idea who will eventually be held liable for injury and environmental damage from this polluting technology (answer: the taxpayer as usual).
LEVEL 5
Eventually the entire eco system will start dying and everyone will get sick and we will have to dismantle the entire wireless infrastructure, put it in a giant skip and go back to plugging things in again with an ethernet cable. In truth, wireless technology should never have been approved to begin with, because studies going back to the 1970's (or even WW2) already proved conclusively that it is completely toxic to biological life. But the wireless industry is just as hopelessly addicted to the power of wireless tech as the average consumer. Nobody has the self restraint to put down this technology, and it looks like we are going to have to wipe out many species, frazzle others to near extinction and create an epidemic of chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, blood coagulation and general sickness in humans in order to learn our lesson the hard way.
LEVEL 6
If truth be told, the collapse of the wireless industry has already begun, with schools removing wifi and new 5G cell towers being taken down on health grounds. Even if smartphones promoted good mental health, functional relationships, healthy childhood development and wholesome living we would STILL have to smash them to bits with hammers to save our health and the environment. The fact that they are destroying basic human interactions and social skills is all the more reason to get the hammers out, and dig around in the attic for some old ethernet cables for the router.
LEVEL 7
As long as people continue to own smartphones and other wireless devices they will continue to become integrated into every facet of society. Using them for 'emergencies only' will eventually include 'buying food' or 'paying rent' when smartphones become the only way to do these things (cashless society). The time to abandon smartphones altogether (and then virtue signal the hell out of it!) is now. People in the 1990's were much happier than people are today. Nobody felt they needed one because they didn't. We don't. We need to carry on using our own senses, brains and faces.
I actually think this technology could lead to a wonderful renaissance by teaching us what is really important and forcing us (through a crisis) to embrace human values and human orientated lifestyles again. We don't have to abandon all technology and go back to the middle ages...... we just have to learn to reject, say, 50% of it (similar to how staying healthy means rejecting about 50% of the 'food' sold in supermarkets). Smartphone apps and wireless gadgets are 'junk technology'. They are 100x more anti social than smoking in public. I'd much rather sit in a bar full of smokers than smartphone users. Smoking does not cause massive declines in insect and bird populations. Using cell phones does.
FWIW I've condensed all of this (and more) into a zero budget video documentary of sorts (free on odysee). I won't spam you, but if you want a link just ask :)
Katherine, thank you for sharing an unpopular truth about kids, safety and smart phones. It is refreshing to read a well thought out alternative to the "safety" argument for getting kids smart phones.
After reading the story you shared about yourself totaling your car at 17, it makes me wonder how much more capable teens are today if we give them the chance to have more independence and the opportunity to grow in their "street smarts." I am just starting out on my parenting journey, and I'm thankful for this perspective you shared!
That screenshot with the quote about the child watching porn with the parent in the next room--my heart hurts.
If only I had encountered your refreshingly practical perspective before we made decisions with our teens about their smartphones! I recognize my own paranoia around needing to be able to reach them as a MAJOR player in creating the problems we're dealing with now, and I dearly wish some of my choices in this department had been different.
I really enjoyed this piece, you have such a balanced perspective on these topics which i find very reassuring.
I've been shocked recently to learn that its not uncommon for parents to constantly track their teenager's location via smartphone for 'safety' reasons. This seems like it could easily backfire by encouraging teenagers to leave their phone behind if they're going somewhere they don't want their parents to know about (I know I would have done this myself!).
I love these articles. I focus so much on the health and environmental aspects that I tend to forget about all the other social, psychological and relationship impacts. Here's my own journey of awakening FWIW :)
LEVEL 1
Smartphones are destroying our children's development, social skills, culture, basic life skills, mental health.
LEVEL 2
Smartphones are toxic time bombs which cause cancer and infertility. The four top cancers are now brain, colon, thyroid and testicular, mirroring where people hold (or store) their smartphones.
LEVEL 3
Wireless infrastructure has caused a 75% - 100% decline in insects over the last 30 years (since the explosion of consumer cell phones). Now birds are dropping out of the skies too. Wireless technology (cell phones, wifi, smart meters etc) requires the entire planet to be blanketed in non-native microwave radiation which is alien (and toxic) to all biological life. Insects got hit first, but as the radiation smog intensifies the effects are moving up the food chain. Yuri Grigoriev, the radiation expert who was brought in to help with the Chernobyl clean up stated that non ionising radiation poses a greater risk to humanity than ionising radiation, because it is completely out of control. The official industry 'safety limit' is set thousands of times higher than the levels proven to cause biological effects. The only safe limit for microwave radiation is the natural background level, which is effectively zero.
LEVEL 4
Millions of people are already getting sick from microwave poisoning. Most are still misdiagnosed or simply ignored. Many have had to move out of the city to live in log cabins, camper vans or in their cars to get away from the cell towers and wifi. France and Russia have now banned wifi from schools because the kids can't concentrate, get headaches, palpitations, anxiety, depression etc (all known symptoms of microwave poisoning). Many other countries are also starting to remove it from schools. The telecoms industry does NOT claim it is safe, but simply states it falls below the official guidelines (which means nothing), while at the same time warning its shareholders to expect a tsunami of health related lawsuits in the coming years from sick and injured customers (chronic fatigue, cancers etc). Even the major insurers will not touch wireless infrastructure with a barge pole. Most of it is uninsured (and therefore illegal). FOIA requests have exposed that even politicians (all bought and paid for, just like the media) have no idea who will eventually be held liable for injury and environmental damage from this polluting technology (answer: the taxpayer as usual).
LEVEL 5
Eventually the entire eco system will start dying and everyone will get sick and we will have to dismantle the entire wireless infrastructure, put it in a giant skip and go back to plugging things in again with an ethernet cable. In truth, wireless technology should never have been approved to begin with, because studies going back to the 1970's (or even WW2) already proved conclusively that it is completely toxic to biological life. But the wireless industry is just as hopelessly addicted to the power of wireless tech as the average consumer. Nobody has the self restraint to put down this technology, and it looks like we are going to have to wipe out many species, frazzle others to near extinction and create an epidemic of chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, blood coagulation and general sickness in humans in order to learn our lesson the hard way.
LEVEL 6
If truth be told, the collapse of the wireless industry has already begun, with schools removing wifi and new 5G cell towers being taken down on health grounds. Even if smartphones promoted good mental health, functional relationships, healthy childhood development and wholesome living we would STILL have to smash them to bits with hammers to save our health and the environment. The fact that they are destroying basic human interactions and social skills is all the more reason to get the hammers out, and dig around in the attic for some old ethernet cables for the router.
LEVEL 7
As long as people continue to own smartphones and other wireless devices they will continue to become integrated into every facet of society. Using them for 'emergencies only' will eventually include 'buying food' or 'paying rent' when smartphones become the only way to do these things (cashless society). The time to abandon smartphones altogether (and then virtue signal the hell out of it!) is now. People in the 1990's were much happier than people are today. Nobody felt they needed one because they didn't. We don't. We need to carry on using our own senses, brains and faces.
I actually think this technology could lead to a wonderful renaissance by teaching us what is really important and forcing us (through a crisis) to embrace human values and human orientated lifestyles again. We don't have to abandon all technology and go back to the middle ages...... we just have to learn to reject, say, 50% of it (similar to how staying healthy means rejecting about 50% of the 'food' sold in supermarkets). Smartphone apps and wireless gadgets are 'junk technology'. They are 100x more anti social than smoking in public. I'd much rather sit in a bar full of smokers than smartphone users. Smoking does not cause massive declines in insect and bird populations. Using cell phones does.
FWIW I've condensed all of this (and more) into a zero budget video documentary of sorts (free on odysee). I won't spam you, but if you want a link just ask :)
Katherine, thank you for sharing an unpopular truth about kids, safety and smart phones. It is refreshing to read a well thought out alternative to the "safety" argument for getting kids smart phones.
After reading the story you shared about yourself totaling your car at 17, it makes me wonder how much more capable teens are today if we give them the chance to have more independence and the opportunity to grow in their "street smarts." I am just starting out on my parenting journey, and I'm thankful for this perspective you shared!
Terrific website!