I'm not so sure it's a benefit so much as maybe a laziness on the parents part. As a parent you should know where your underage child is at all times without the use of an electronic device. If you really want to "track" your child there are alternative, passive devices you could use to do that outside of a cell phone. There were parents picking their kids up at malls and movies in the 90's when there weren't cell phones. Tell your child exactly where to meet you and at what time and be there.
Not every family gathering has a tv running. Some actually encourage social interaction. After that it's not going to kill your child to actually be bored if that's the case, it'll encourage them to be social with other family members. Even after that you're letting the child have a tablet so you don't have to listen to him/her complain about being bored. Not much different than using a tv as a babysitter.
Social media outlets are NOT the malls we grew up in. They're far more insidious and risky. Do you think a child needs the stress of their friends bragging about having more followers than your child has? Your child posting photos or videos of themself online that you otherwise wouldn't approve of. The risk of your child saying things online that could be offensive, embarrassing, or regretful that can be seen by everyone regardless of what privacy settings you think you've set. Social Media encourages people to maintain a connection to "friends" who aren't really their friends. Social media opens the door for all kinds of bullying, harassing, and just all kinds of internet creepiness. They're by far the harmless "meeting places" that you think they are.
sorry, but with each counter point its clear you are myopic in your views. You want to look at one point in time but fail to look at the entire picture.
I've was there in your shoes about a cell phone. I didn't care for the kids to have them. We held out on giving it to the kids. Problem is once they had them I did see the benefit. There's no waiting on a kid - you know where they are. You don't sit around hoping they'll show up when they say. You can find them immediately and talk to them. And that's not from "lazy parenting". They are kids learning how to be a human. They will be late, they will push the envelope on how far they can go with the parental leash. But I can contact them immediately, I can tell them where to meet me after school, they can tell me where they will be after school. No guessing. Why? its called communication. They learned how to communicate with us and we with them seeing eye to eye.
As for the mall, that was the reference from my day. Mall, town square, square dance at the local barn, roller skating rink,....... they're all part of our culture and growing up. Its how we socialized with others. Its called being human. It was a mall in the 80s, town square in the 50s, barn dance in the 30s, and today its cyber space. The location changes but the function doesn't. We as humans, and especially teens, like to get together. Its not about how many friends follow you or how many girls you two stepped with or the number of times you circled the square in your car. Today they use the web to get together. Tomorrow it'll be something different.
Its really amazing how near sighted you are and how you cant relate to how things change from generation to generation. Just because its different doesn't mean its bad. The world didn't go to hell when we went from horse and buggy to cars. Its not crapping out because people chat on line versus going out.
