There it is.
That's the pencils fully-led education talk educated educators talking education early
Monday morning home room.
Yeah, you guys everybody knows right now you guys don't record this early
Monday mornings.
Well, but it's still home room and this is when you're getting it.
It's Johnny Upanachi, Jacob Chairman of the board, me, Dr. Tim Slicker.
You're educated educators talking education and Johnny, I'm going to set this up
and then I'm going to ask you a question.
We've been hearing a lot about cell phone bands occurring and actually a lot of
people going while they like it kids included or pointing out how like this is a great
thing.
Yeah, I was shocked.
I was shocked to hear right out of the mouth of youth.
Yeah, you know, so it's like holy crap.
Who knew that the kids actually wanted to have opportunities to be kids again.
So we agreed and in fact, good job.
Well, you were saying in our Saturday broadcast, you brought up David Bowie and you brought
up changes and brought up some lines and one of the lines was I believe they're quite
aware of what they're going through.
They're quite aware of what these young people right.
So again, of course, we're shocked and when they're like, hey, actually, we kind of
like this break from our phones and this time talking to each other and, you know,
just they're aware of how draining and distracting time is to them and valuing social interaction
as they should be, especially teens and preteens.
It's a huge part of their identity and development.
So it makes sense, of course, listen to the kids.
Are you are you ready to go a step further?
There's coming out of Denmark last month, um, they're selling right in the state of
I got I got nothing but love when it comes to education and the Scandinavian countries.
I mean, Denmark, it's, you know, they've got a school out there where they take four
year olds out in the woods and give them hatchets and stuff and let them just cut down
stuff.
I love that.
Yeah, but you know, um, they are Johnny proposing, um, mandatory age restrictions age 15 before
you can have access to any social media, any social media, a outright age ban, um, I'm,
I got it, you know, and I'm going to point out that I got I know all of the holes.
However, I, I'm fully into it.
I, I think it's awesome.
I see it as another step in a direction that says, had we really known the effects of social
media and what they were going to have on our kids, we would have never let this loosen the
wild to begin with.
Um, and I hear people saying, well, you can't pull it back in, you can, if we know the harm
it's causing and we know the real harm it's causing, then yes, in fact, we have a responsibility
to act in, um, you know, ways for the kids to actually shield them from things that are harmful
and, you know, let's be honest, I mean, social media can be pretty harmful no matter what age,
it can really suck you into an isolated stage state.
It can depress the heck out of you.
You end up doom scrolling as they call it, um, and, um, you know, what benefits are there with,
with social media, um, and particularly, you know, up until the age of 15.
So Johnny, is this a policy worth, uh, replicating here in the, in the United States of America?
Well, I think it's certainly one worth paying close attention to Tim, right?
When experts, you know, doing the research are saying things to us like, hey, we make a
recommendation, uh, that you create some policies to protect children's wellbeing, we should all
listen, right? So I think this is a precedent setting, you know, uh, move by Denmark and, uh,
and I like it. I mean, I, I don't think it necessarily means banning it, right?
But certainly requiring companies to take reasonable steps to prevent underage usage, right?
And citing studies that have linked, you know, uh, you know, young people just excessively using
social media and it having an impact on their wellbeing through anxiety and depression,
specifically. So, you know, we have a, uh, an epidemic of young people experiencing anxiety
and linking that linked to depression. And that could be a really dangerous thing for, like,
you know, we, we as old-timers, we could sit back and say, let the young people be young,
right? But it's also our responsibility to pay close attention to this kind of research,
and says, yeah, well, let them be young. And also, we should probably be as responsible as we can
with what they have access to, right? Because if we know that like this increased anxiety and
depression is dangerous to them and to their development and to the growth of our society,
yeah, that's a thing like our social responsibility, right? Then maybe we should have some,
you know, some guardrails in place. So, you know, I'm, I'm not a big fan of censorship.
You know, this is like, remind me a little bit of, like, the tip or gore era we grew up,
and put a sticker on the, put a sticker on the CD, and it just made us want to go and buy it more.
You know, but, but the whole thing here being, uh, you know, I think there's real value to this
in the context of saying, hey, we have young people that are, are really suffering.
And, and that if we can better understand how to alleviate that suffering for them,
and it's, and again, I say it all the time in investment on all our futures, you know,
maybe we should do that. Maybe it shouldn't just be unmitigated access to all kinds of social media.
And I know that's going to be hard to him because it's a lot of grown folks too who are pretty,
you know, enslaved to social media, right? And you've talked about, you know, psychologically,
the, the, the, the addicted to it. Yeah. I, I guess, I mean, there's a real dopium hit and there's
a real way that, you know, like you've talked about being in the algorithm or scrolling or
or tapping on things, clicking, you know, can really, can really pull you into as you say,
an isolated place, but it can also be a sense of, distorted community.
Right. And so this makes a lot of sense to me, um, implementation. I'm always excited to learn.
Right. And so keeping an open mind and seeing like, okay, let's, how's this pan out? How does this
play out in Denmark or in other places where, where it's being, you know, put to practice?
I'm going to give you one of those, but Jacob chairman of the board. What do you think, my friend?
And Tim, I've, I've got one word. And frankly, it's enraged. I'm enraged.
Were, were you on social media right now while we were talking? I was looking at the Twitter feed
and I'm just very upset. Tim, let me ask you a question. How much is a smartphone?
Um, well, actually, hey, I got to tell you, um, they're very cheap because my father has one.
That's your big indicator. Yes. You know, and, and yeah, well, I mean, look, the iPhones and
people like, but, but actually, you know, a smartphone with internet access, social media,
100 bucks, you know, um, actually cheap. I know people were like, well, my iPhone cost,
I know your iPhone did. But if you're like my dad and you go to T-Mobile and claim the senior
discount and say, you don't care about all that, you just, you know, I think my dad would rather
just have a flip phone. Um, but he has a smartphone. And, um, I think the rent on his smartphone
is like 25 cents a month. But we can agree that the answer is money, right? It costs some amount
of money. Okay. Money, money, money, which I don't think your 12-year-old has any.
So, oh, Mr. Parent out there, instead of saying, oh, Lord, won't the government step in
to stop me from spending my money on buying this social media device for my eight-year-old?
How about don't do that. That's a bad idea. Don't buy your little child a smartphone because
we've seen rules like this recently in the United Kingdom. And it's becoming more popular in the
EU saying, if you want to use any internet website, you need to put a photo ID in. If you want to go
on YouTube, you got to scan your photo ID to YouTube. You have to give Google in the the the
meta corporation and alphabet corporation your photo ID to watch your pimple popper videos on YouTube
now. And maybe I don't want to have my face associated with Dr. Pimple Popper. I enjoyed my,
my, I'm an adult. I want to see pimples popped and I want to be left alone on my YouTube. But
think of the children. I'm sorry. We need to take your privacy on the internet away. So I,
I think number one responsibility for no Facebook. Timmy is mom and dad.
Wow. That's me. But I need it for school. Yeah.
Wow. If you want to have a regulation, if you want to have a regulation, say don't require
kids to need it for school. There you go. How about that? Man, you know, sound and like a wow.
Well, Tim, I think I government is the problem. I didn't pay you to be one of them people, Jacob. I'm
sorry. Wow. No, okay. I like it though. I like what Jacob saying here. Let's make it. Let's,
let's, let's call it out here. You know, like, like, it's, it's device accessibility is the problem
and and and not access the, you know, the fact that anybody can get access with the device.
We would limit device the devices then. Let's get dumb phones for our kids. You can call me and
say, pick me up from school, dad, school guy canceled. But you can't go on these toxic social
medias, which I agree. These are bad for kids. But I don't think the solution is to do some of
these things where I think the solutions will be quite onerous for the general population.
This sets up a great classes in session for Wednesday because Jacob, what you're talking about.
Actually, there's research out and I think we should cover this. Gen Z, there's a whole movement
to get rid of smartphones. And in fact, the market now is delivering a phone.
Yeah, yeah. This is very real. We could get to it. You know, I have, I have, you know, two children
and they're quite active on, you know, different social networks. And one of them's younger and
doesn't do the social media stuff quite yet. I mean, I think, you know, as parents, like Jacob
suggested, we've sort of set some boundaries around when that's more socially and developmentally
appropriate. But, but it's increasing in popularity in 2026 amongst the young, youngs,
the youngins is, can we get a landline? My friends are getting telephones so we could call
each other. And there's a, you know, and you're and my younger daughter explaining, there's this
like throwback phone that you could just call your friends on and talk to them. And it's
funny as a parent, you know, if you're an older listener out there, like, like Tim and I were
chuckling, we're like, this is funny that my kid is explaining an everyday technology of my youth.
You know, but it is, you know, I like Jacob's suggesting here, like, I like him pointing the
finger and saying, okay, grown ups, like, take some ownership of this. And there certainly are ways
that kids can connect and build, you know, conversations, connections and communities through
technology that are less potentially destructive as social media is. And I know it just sound like
some tech haters here, but I think this is a great question. I think this is a worth wild topic of
further exploration. Speaking of technology, Tim is muted.
Tim still learning this. Hey, and so on Wednesday then, yeah, on Wednesday, we shall call each
other. We shall call each other. It is the movement. And you know, we saw used a thing called the
telephone. I was doing some research. And so people are calling it the dumb phone movement.
There is a movement of foot where people are going after dumb phones and it's being led by the
youngins. Wow, we got to talk more about that. I have a little classes in session on Wednesday,
home room guys. Love it. But now it's time for your moment of sin.
If those in charge of our society, politicians, corporate executives and owners of press and
television can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers
patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
Hey, thanks for listening to Busted Pencil's home room podcast today. And remember,
you can grab other great podcasts filled with more Busted Pencils content on Apple Podcasts
Spotify. Of course, on the civic media website or at BustedPensils.com. And don't you dare miss class
in session on Wednesday. And you'll always find our special drop of produces choice on Friday.
And of course, catch Busted Pencil's broadcast on Saturdays at 3 p.m. Central time across all
the civic media network stations for one hour of your favorite blue collar scholars,
Jim and Johnny, and keep Busted Pencils.