If we’ve decided against smart phones for our kids, can dumb phones come to the rescue? New options for families have hit the tech market, offering few or select features, and giving parents new things to consider when it comes to kids and phones in 2025. Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offers a framework for thinking about smart phones, dumb phones, and feature phones in a culture still weighed down by anxiety and distraction.

4:04 Deciding when
5:17 Phones as tools
10:05 The dumb phone: what problem is it solving?
16:11 The feature phone: constant connection
17:30 Healthy friendship
22:03 An age of distraction, even offline
23:44 The need for silence
26:29 School policies
27:14 Family policies

School Phone Bans Alone Do Not Improve Grades or Wellbeing, The Guardian, February 5, 2025

Apple Just Reinvented Its Biggest App, The Atlantic, September 14, 2016

The Anxious Generation: The Great Rewiring of Childhood by Jonathan Haidt

Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

Parents’ Conference: Passing the Faith On to the Next Generation at The Heights School (April 12, 2025) link coming soon

Technology in the Home: Perspective, Principles, and Practices by Michael Moynihan

Forming iGen: On the Forces that Shaped Them featuring Alvaro de Vicente

When Is Your Son Ready for a Smart Phone? featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Smart Phones: Why Wait When He’s “the Only One” featuring Joe Cardenas

On Freedom and Phones featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Reconsidering Electronics under the Tree featuring Alvaro de Vicente