No, the kids who are stuck behind screen and aren't allowed to be kids are missing out. If OP is really a teen, your parents are doing you a favor if they don't allow a phone/social media.

I get it. You have FOMO. And you are missing out. Sorry, kid.

OP- just in case, this is a real post. My kids did not get a phone until I finished eighth grade. We did have one shared cell phone that had limited options (no social media) that they could use from time to time. They also had iPads.

Fast forward b3-4 years and they finally understand why we held the line on this. Social media is terrible for kids.

OP, I have a younger son and I am quite frankly scared of all the apps, social media etc. So many things can happen. There are predators out there trying to make contact with teens. Read up some of the "sextortion" scams that are happening to teen boys - a user pretending to be a hot young girl will contact you, send pics, get you to send pics, and then try to blackmail you into giving them money to not release your pictures. Young men have killed themselves over this! And who know what all else goes on. It's a different world than when we were young.

That being said, I do understand that there is going to be a tipping point where if I don't get my son a phone, he's going to be left out of plans with friends, and I do care about his happiness, so at that point I will likely get him a phone with the ability to call and text and that's it. I think this is the way to sell it to your parents. I get that kids use things like snapchat for the dms now but I think just plain texting/group texting/calling is going to be the easiest sell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way a teen wrote this. I have teens. Really smart articulate ones. Nope, no way.

Yeah. This sounds like an adult pretending to be a teen....

NP, but for crying out loud, why does this matter? Who cares if OP is a teen or not? He asks an interesting question -- what are the arguments that would persuade a parent to give an 8th grader a phone with or without social media? Either answer the question or don't.

I’m sorry, your parents are really awful.

parental control limits work with apple phones (not sure about Samsung). that way your parents can ensure you won’t get addicted / won’t stay up all night ie limited screen time or set downtime. if they say no, maybe ask for an iPad that way you can still use social media.

Anonymous wrote:Let your parents know about options like the Gabb phone. It's talk/text and a has a limited number of apps, but no social media and no internet. It's what my 13 (nearly 14 yo) uses. I had many of the concerns as your parents, but I realized he was missing out on social connection without a phone.

I found Gabb phone a waste of money. The texts often did not come through and the location service almost never worked right. You can’t download apps like you might want to check your grades/homework or to check the bus schedule, and can’t use it to listen to music. (They have very limited music — not what a teen would want.). And if your friends have apple phones they won’t add you to the text chain because it messes up the text chain to have non apple phones on it. We bought two and it was a total waste of money—we broke down and got cheap apple phones and put parental controls on them.

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't matter what we think. You need to respect your parents decisions. You don't need a phone for messaging and other stuff and you can use a tablet or computer.

PP were you ever a kid once? Also, it sounds like she is respecting their decisions - she's not running to get a burner phone or being sneaky. She's trying to get them to change their decision, which is a normal thing people of all ages do.

Well seems like a fine place to me to get advice.
We just got DD a phone for 9th grade. She too had the Apple Watch and seemed to get pretty fast at typing and we let unlimited texts on iPad. The Apple Watch did suck for calls for sure.
Our limits are unlimited texting, it shuts off at 10pm-7am and she gets 30 mins a day of Snapchat/til Tok both of which are absolute garbarge.
I control that all thu apple parental controls and so far so good
I’d focus on the unlimited texting as a social outlet and limited maybe on social media.

Let your parents know about options like the Gabb phone. It's talk/text and a has a limited number of apps, but no social media and no internet. It's what my 13 (nearly 14 yo) uses. I had many of the concerns as your parents, but I realized he was missing out on social connection without a phone.

One reason I got my teens cell phone was so he could communicate more with other teens instead of spending time on the internet on websites with adults.

Snapchat is going to be a harder sell.
Propose a contract with them where they can have your password at all times and you always keep location sharing with them. Agree in advance to parental controls limiting download, screen time and downtime.
Explain calmly what you have told us about texts and give them a few examples.

It doesn't matter what we think. You need to respect your parents decisions. You don't need a phone for messaging and other stuff and you can use a tablet or computer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way a teen wrote this. I have teens. Really smart articulate ones. Nope, no way.

Yeah. This sounds like an adult pretending to be a teen....

I can't even defend myself anymore, but believe what you wanna. I'm a teen and that's a compliment to me Have a great rest of your day, and thank you if you offered any opinions/advice!

Busts out a “wanna” to prove us wrong. Listen, it’s fine you’re writing this as a teen for whatever reasons you have. But this reads like an adult who spends a lot of time on DCUM. 1000% not how articulate teens (who do not spend any time on message boards) write

Not nearly stupid enough to be a DCUM adult poster.