Thank you AT&T for proving several of my points regarding kids and social media with your commercial featuring nine year olds schooling clueless adults on the amazeballsness of the new Amazon Fire Phone.
While sites like Twitter do not ask your age when setting up an account – they’ve likely realized the uselessness and unenforceability of age requirements – I think it is foolish to let a nine year old play unsupervised on this (or any) digital playground. Don’t get me wrong – I’m just as much a sucker for marketing and nerdy-cute precocious kids showing us grown ups what’s up as the next person (wait, whaaat?). What I dislike about this commercial is that it depicts nine year olds (3rd to 4th graders dependent on birthday) just chillin’ in a cafe with their new Fire Phones over coffee… like this totally happens. I find it insidious as it pertains to our kids becoming socially active at even younger ages and, very cleverly, would have us believe that this is perfectly okay.
Transcription:
A little boy and girl sit in a coffee shop talking about what they have in store for the day. The little boy asks “So what you got on deck?” The little girl answers “Skyfall, Lean In, then some Pinterest. You?” The boy replies “Twitter, Minecraft, then some Hunger Games. Boom.” A woman from across the table has been watching them talk about their day “You guys are all set huh?” The boy replies “Oh, yea, new Amazon Fire Phone.” The little girl adds “It comes with Amazon Prime. Tons of cool stuff for no extra charge.” The woman asks “Really? It comes with Amazon Prime?” The girl answers “Yea, there’s so much to watch.” The boy adds “I’ve been on this Earth 9 years I’ve never seen anything like it.”
By now you may be thinking that I’m much too uptight and possess zero sense of humor. Believe me, I have a great sense of humor, but never appreciate my intelligence being insulted. I wonder how many kids have seen this and said, “See Mom, they’re nine and they’ve got phones! Why can’t I have one?”
The best news is that we are all free to decide what is right for our kids and when.
When we hand our kids any kind of smart device, it is our responsibility not to get left out of this equation.
Now…if I could just get *AT&T to sell my book in their stores! *we love our phone plan
Thanks for stopping by,
J. J. xo
J. J. Cannon 