Very well said. I was a (late in life) college student. I remember one class I had, the Instructor said that All Cell Phones must be turned OFF upon entering class. NO ONE was to answer a phone....PERIOD. One day as soon as class started, one girls phone went off where she answered it and ran out of the classroom talking. Immediately, this Instructor picked up her bags, called Class Dismissed, and left. SHE MEANT WHAT SHE SAID. The girl returned inside and asked what was going on. Some people don't believe others when they give instruction. This Instructor did say however, that if an important call; for instance your child was sick before classes and the babysitter called to say they needed taken to the hospital because their fever went up; if you told her at the beginning of class, she would allow it. So I think she was a fair person.

Yes, we do need to find out ways to manage these tools to keep our children safe and teach them valuable ways to spend their time with them; besides texting. Another College Instructor I had said that he missed Birthday Cards being mailed or given to him. He said that since the internet, everyone e-mailed him a card which did NOT have the sentimental value a real one did. This led me to buying a card and passing it around our classroom for everyone to sign on his big day. He loved it. Kids don't realize that holding an item you received instead of it being e-mailed is much more valuable and caring to most people.

Video games are another problem. A lot of them are combat games and Fast and Furious car jacking games. I have never played one; I only know that my son-in-law loves them. I think the Combat/ like Vietnam games are too bloody and gruesome and teaches kids that it is okay to kill. And car jacking reminds me of those 2 girls that carjacked that UBER driver and killed him when the car wrecked and all one of them was worried about was her cell phone. That told me that those girls had no value for human life; only material things. This is a big problem.

I don't know what else to say about this subject; but it sounds like you have a great handle on it with your kids. If we could teach a class about the safety and uses of technology and how to wean our kids away from them at certain times of the day; we would be a better nation. Instead, right now we see our kids with their faces buried in the phone and attached to their hands. It is a sorry sight.