Let’s talk about burner phones and our phone culture

Ok so I watched a report awhile back on how teens are using burner phones to circumvent their parents punishments when they take their phones away. This brought several topics I thought would be interesting to discuss.

So I was in my local dollar general awhile back and looked at the phone section and saw a legit smartphone for $30. The lg rebel 4 or something. I thought it was pretty incredible how we are able to produce these things so cheaply to get people smartphones in the 21st century. As a computer engineer I’m very passionate about moving us forward with technology.

But this article brought to my attention how easy it would be for a kid to get access to the internet despite being grounded. It’s not hard to imagine a teenager scraping together $30-$60 and walking down to the dollar general or family dollar and getting a phone. Or maybe an old phone you have just thrown in a drawer somewhere. Then just connect it to Starbucks WiFi or your buddies hot spot and boom you’re online. It’s absolutely fascinating especially considering where we were with smartphones just a decade ago.

In addition to how easy it is, think about what this says about our culture now. If a kid feels so compelled to sneak out to get a burner phone, what does that say about their need to interact with their friends. It’s like we feel compelled to be online and on social media because we feel like we miss out if we aren’t always connected.

Just thought i would share this as I think it’s important to talk about not only how incredible it is that sophisticated technology is more obtainable, but also the ramifications of it.

Submitted July 28, 2020 at 06:56PM by toxic_shadow_12 https://ift.tt/2BJ4aJG https://ift.tt/eA8V8J