Be smart, get dumb, says Paul Kerensa

The new academic year has meant an ‘autumn-clean’ of our family’s digital life. Somehow our two children – surely toddlers a minute ago – are now in secondary school. With that jump comes the question of phones. To buy or not to buy?

We resisted smartphones longer than some families. We’re not technophobes (although realistically, what can the internet do that Ceefax couldn’t 30 years ago?). We’ve been cautious about demands for more screens. Oddly, though, the demands weren’t coming from our kids, but elsewhere…

Paul Kerensa is on tour around the country. Paulkerensa.com

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This is an extract from an article published in the October 2024 edition of Reform

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