Dialing back smartphones
By Kadie Taylor
The Observer
OPELIKA — A group of Opelika parents were looking for ways to allow their children to stay connected without the dangers of smartphones, and found a now-antique solution — landlines.
“I heard a quote a while ago, and it just said, ‘When you’re ready to end your child’s childhood, give them a phone,’ and that just kind of stuck with me — as soon as we give smartphones to our children, that is the distraction, that is the new toy, wverything else kind of goes to the wayside,” said Micah Melnick. “So that’s just kind of been one of our parenting strategies, to prolong childhood as long as possible.”
As her fifth-grade daughter grew a close community of friends, Melnick said she was having conversations with the other parents regarding how they could enable connection for the children without smartphones — then ads for Tin Can began appearing on her phone.
“The Tin Can is essentially a landline; it’s over WiFi, so you don’t have to have a phone plan to use it,” she said. “It comes with an app so that parents can screen what numbers the children can call and what numbers can call into their phone, which was really important to us, because we do know people who have gotten a general landline, and they get a lot of spam calls. So this is an additional layer of protection for us to be able to know who our children are calling and know what calls they’re going to receive. The Tin Can has been marketed as a way to get children all in the same group, so they can call each other without any type of plan if they all have Tin Can phones. They can also add a plan to call out of network. So, we added the plan so our daughter can call our cell phones, grandparents and cousins. So enabled her to be able to communicate with our extended family more, and it’s also given her, and us, a sense of safety.
After seeing the Tin Can as a fun way to allow her daughter to contact her friends, Melnick said she reached out to the other parents and ended up placing an order for 19 phones.
“They got these phones for Christmas, and most of them got an address book because they have to write down numbers,” she said. “It’s not a cell phone, it doesn’t save their numbers — I think you can save four speed-dial numbers. Our goal, beyond just giving them the opportunity to communicate at home without using our phones to text and call each other, was also for them to learn some soft skills for using a phone. So many children these days don’t know how to talk on the phone, because nobody does — everybody texts. They can’t text on these; it’s only calling. And so we’ve had to go over some things, like you have to identify yourself when you call someone, you can’t just call and start talking — and how to hang up with someone politely, things like that. So I think it’s been really good for the girls.”
Melnick said she has enjoyed the nostalgia of watching her daughter chat with her friends on the landline, while knowing the girls can stay in touch without the dangers that smartphones can pose.
“I know my daughter has come home from like basketball games that she’s played with these girls, and then called them to talk about the game,” she said. “It’s really been a useful way to communicate for her. And then, of course, we have loved being able to call her, or have her call us. She’s called me at work a couple of times when she wanted to tell me about something, and so it’s just neat that she has that way to communicate with us. We’ve been really pleased with it.”
For other parents who share concerns over the dangers that smartphones can pose to children, Melnick said she recommends reaching out to parents who may feel the same, and maybe more landline phone communities can be created for children.
“There are so many benefits to delaying smartphones, and there is so much research out there now about the impact of cell phone access, social media, children being on the internet and having screen time [has on children],” she said. “The dopamine hits, I know as an adult, I have trouble putting my phone down — I can’t imagine asking my child to have even more restraint as a child with that very powerful drug and tool. There is a ton of data on how detrimental phones can be.
“I hope that parents will do more research and try to get other families on board with them, but I think there are more families now leaning into [the idea that] our children don’t have to have smartphones, but let’s give them other opportunities,” she said. “We don’t want our children to be unable to communicate. We don’t want our children to be filtered away from anyone else. That’s not the goal. The goal is for them to have safe ways and fun ways to communicate — that aren’t robbing them of the opportunity to be a child.”
For more information on the Tin Can phone, visit www.tincan.kids.
