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Only 3% of UK 12-year-olds don’t have a smartphone. Here is how four of them feel about it
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2024
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Honestly a big part of this is that the "dumb" phones are just as, if not more, expensive than a used or low end smartphone.
My daughter did use a dumb phone for a while, but then they started shutting down 2G and some 3G masts in the area and it was causing problems. There are some newer dumb phones that can use 4G, but given the prices and half of them still using micro usb for some damn reason (I'm a big fan of just carrying around one charger) it made more sense for me to give her an old smartphone and lock it down a little.
Off topic, but I bought a handful of magnetic cables and a few different ends to match our devices, and now one cable works for charging everything.
It has the downside of not letting you connect the device to a computer, but because they're magnetic, they're breakaway cables. My kid has walked away with their tablet after forgetting to unplug it, and nothing bad happens 👍
Careful with those, almost started a house fire once because the connection wasn't as tight as it needed to be. With it being magnetic and carrying power you run into the risk of metal debris magnetising itself on it and completing a circuit
I've looked into getting these magnetic connectors for some of my devices but I've seen to many horror stories online about electrical damage caused by these cables. Seems worth it just to stick to plain connectors.
Or just non fast wireless chargers
I'll keep an eye on them, thanks for the heads up 👍