I Gen

The IPhone Generation

Perhaps you have a son or daughter or know someone who is never seen without a smart phone in their hand. My thoughts on this is, that through evolution, this generation will develop a third arm just to hold onto a phone.

I'm experiencing this first hand, as I have a thirteen year old daughter that is on her phone nearly every waking moment. It has disrupted her social life, her private life, her sleep and just about anything else. She does have a social life but it involves the phone. I picked her and one of her friends up from skating, as soon as they sat down in the car they were both instantly on their phones and neither said a word to each other.

I suppose I am partly, perhaps totally to blame. At the age of six I gave her a laptop. Then shortly after that her Mother gave her a phone and so it began. My thoughts with the laptop was to get her accustom to it and maybe she would pursue some sort of interest in online business or some sort of web venture but that didn't happen.

The internet has become a necessity, we use it for gathering information, we use it for communication, for entertainment, for paying the bills, it's not just a luxury anymore. So, the excessive phone use is somewhat understandable.

My daughter's phone started out harmless enough as it was an emergency use only device, then it evolved into an addiction. At first it drove me nuts how much she uses the phone but I've mellowed on the subject and here's why. Things could be lots worse. She doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't do drugs and doesn't have sex. If a phone is what keeps her happy, I can accept that.