Parents are putting smartphones on hold

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Hi Ledger readers, Ashley here. Did you ever, as a kid, use a tin can to talk to your friends? Turns out, Tin Can is also a device that today’s parents are using to try to tamp down their kids’ usage of smartphones, as Ledger regular contributor (and Charlotte mom) Carroll Walton writes about in today’s lead story. It hearkens back to that time when kids used cans to talk, but with a little bit of a 21st-century spin.

by Carroll Walton

Karla Hsu and her husband, Johann, have always been conscious of screen time. They don’t allow their two elementary school-aged daughters to have iPads, and TV time is limited.

But with middle school on the horizon, and experts warning of the dangers of smartphones and social media, they decided to be proactive in their next step: They gave their daughters a Wi-Fi-enabled phone called a Tin Can, which works like an old landline phone and only makes phone calls, to connect with friends instead.

“We’ve seen all the studies that link detrimental mental health to kids’ use of cellphones and social media,” Hsu said. “You’re essentially giving your child access to the whole world. We are against that. But I don’t want our kids to feel left out, either. The Tin Can is a way we can give them access to their friends without a screen, without text messages, without group chats. And it’s in our home where we can actually see what’s happening.”

Hsu, who is known as “Charlotte Mama” on Instagram, where she has nearly 95,000 followers as a parent influencer, saw a video clip of Jonathan Haidt, author of the bestselling book “The Anxious Generation,” recommending the Tin Can. Haidt attributes a rise in teenage anxiety and depression to a shift from play-based childhoods to ones built on virtual interactions of smart technology and social media. 

The wireless-based Tin Can phone, which costs $100, plugs into a power outlet. It looks like an old soup can that children used to attach to another with a string to play “telephone.” 

Parents have to coordinate with other families who have Tin Can phones to share five-digit codes, but calls to other Tin Cans are free. Making outside calls to traditional phone numbers requires a $10 monthly subscription. 

All Tin Can phones, with or without subscriptions, can dial 911. Parents can access call logs in a Tin Can app on their cellphones, detailing with whom and how long their children have talked.

Hsu pre-ordered a Tin Can last summer, and it didn’t arrive until two weeks before Christmas. Two videos she posted about getting Tin Cans for her daughters — Isabel, a third grader, and Lillian, a kindergartener, both at CMS — got more than 2 million views between TikTok and Instagram.

Tin Cans are on back order on its website until June. 

It’s part of a larger movement of parents working to delay their kids from having smartphones. Some parents have signed what’s called a “Wait Until 8th” pledge, encouraging solidarity in holding off on smartphones until after their children finish eighth grade. 

A national survey last year found that about 1 in 4 parents of children aged 12 and under said their kid has their own smartphone, including 57% of children ages 11 and 12 and 29% of children ages 8 to 10.

But for families eager to find alternatives, or get ahead of the move many feel pressured to make by middle school, they’re going back to landlines.

They say they want to develop healthy habits before bad ones creep in. They are also eager to give their children new freedoms without fear.

“We have the data, and we're starting to understand what [access to smartphones] looks like, socially and emotionally, for their futures,” said Jenny Allen, a parent and a licensed mental health counselor, who knows firsthand the trauma teenagers face. “We have to figure out something. I think it's a good answer as a stepping stone right now.”

The Allens installed a landline through their internet provider in November for their son, James, a third-grader, and daughter, Lucy, a kindergartener, both at Trinity Episcopal School. The Allens joined forces with other parents who had signed the Wait Until 8th pledge and added landlines. 

Jenny and her husband, Christopher, laid down ground rules that phones are kept in a common area of the house and can be used only at certain times of day. They post a list of friends and family members, and their phone numbers, near the phone. The rest is up to James and Lucy.

Allen said conversations for third-grade boys aren’t exceptionally long at this age. She said James used it mostly over the Christmas break when he was out of school to catch up and make plans. Otherwise, he and Lucy love to use the primitive-style phones mostly to call their grandparents.

“They can talk to who they want, or they can answer the phone,” Allen said. “And they're learning to do these things, really, on their own. It is independent of us, which is so nice, because they don't have to say, ‘Can I use your phone to call Aunt Mary Beth?’ They're getting that independence piece and developing those social skills, without the screen.”

Teaching their children phone etiquette was an important part of the addition for both the Allens and Hsus. Hsu said it was almost comical to watch her daughters answer their Tin Can for the first time. 

“We put it in the kitchen, and they’re like ‘What is that sound?’” said Hsu, who keeps her cellphone on vibrate and likes to talk on speakerphone. “And I said, ‘Well, it’s ringing. You have to pick it up.’ … I had to show her how to hold it up to her ear.”

Focusing on the phone call part of phones helps teach social skills that smartphones and text messages often skirt, like appropriate times to call other households, asking a friend to come to the phone and how to gracefully end a call.

“The first time, she just hung up,” Hsu said.

Listening to her daughters talk on the Tin Can takes her back to her own childhood, too.

“I just want my kids to be outside, playing outdoors, spending time with friends, reading books,” Hsu said. “There's just so much evidence that once you give them the phone, they're not present anymore in family time, with friendships, and I just want them to be kids for as long as possible.”

Carroll Walton is a longtime journalist and freelance writer who now authors The Ledger’s weekly Fútbol Friday newsletter on Charlotte FC. Reach her at [email protected].

Along the banks of just six North and South Carolina streams lies a freshwater mussel known as the Carolina heelsplitter. The rare species, with its yellow-and-greenish brown, trapezoid-shaped shell, was discovered in 1852 but had not been seen for decades before 1987, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

The heelsplitter’s livelihood depends on water levels — and by extension, rainfall — but the Charlotte region has been grappling with a deepening drought, and lowering water levels are threatening the fragile habitats this species relies on.

South Carolina freshwater fisheries biologist Preston Chrisman said he’s already seen some early signs of stress. Mussels, which rely on stable water levels to survive, are being stranded as water levels drop.

“They’re basically taking their foot and dragging themselves lower,” Chrisman said, describing visible trails left behind in sandy areas as mussels try to follow receding water.

Today, the endangered Carolina heelsplitter can be found in only two North Carolina creeks — Goose Creek and Waxhaw Creek in Union County — and four South Carolina streams — the Lynches River, Gills Creek, Cuffytown Creek and the Turkey Creek drainage. 

If drought conditions worsen in the coming weeks, in smaller streams where water levels can drop to isolated pools or disappear entirely, mussels could be left stranded without enough water to survive.

Drought’s effects on other species: Water levels in larger systems like Lake Wylie and the Catawba River are not in immediate danger yet, but some ripple effects are on the way if the region doesn’t get more rain soon, Chrisman said. 

Lower water levels can disrupt fish reproduction, especially during spawning season (which is happening now). Many fish move into shallow areas to build nests, but when lakes drop several feet, those areas can be left high and dry.

“That can leave some of those areas stranded,” Chrisman said, adding that while most fish will adapt, the low water levels can make fish spawned in that period more likely to die.

When it doesn’t rain, that means warmer, more stagnant water and lower dissolved oxygen levels. Fish depend on oxygen in the water, so when levels drop too far, it can ultimately kill them.

Another concern, Chrisman said, is the potential rise of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria. These blooms thrive in warm, stagnant, nutrient-rich water. In high concentrations, they can produce toxins harmful to animals and humans, cause fish deaths and even affect the taste of fish caught in those waters.

So far, though, fish are in the immediate clear. Chrisman said it would take a prolonged drought to create severe problems in major systems. Even the mussels in shallower water are still a while away from sleeping with the fishes. 

Where the concern is greater, however, is in smaller bodies of water — including private ponds with fish. One of the best ways to prevent problems is to install an aeration system, Chrisman said, to help circulate water, increase oxygen levels and prevent the pond from separating into warm and cold layers. 

As temperatures rise in July and August, warm water holds less oxygen, increasing the likelihood of fish deaths if the drought hangs on through the summer. Fins crossed that the drought will end before then. —Lindsey Banks

The rebrand also comes with a commercial, which the Library says it worked with local branding agency Mode to create. Up next is a new look for ImaginOn, including a logo “that inspires creativity and imagination that goes ‘on and on,’” according to the Library.

The Ledger asked a Library spokesperson how much it spent on the campaign, but didn’t immediately hear back.

In design, clarity is everything — and nothing quite evokes the calm of quiet time in the library like a stack of books barely holding it together.

The Library has been led by an interim CEO (Angela Myers) for a year, with the board of trustees having temporarily paused its search earlier this year, The Ledger reported in January. —Ashley Fahey

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