Q&A: A 7th grader’s Perler bead smartphone teaches her peers about smart phone use
Everyone in Kylee’s 7th-grade class has a smartphone except Kylee. Her parents won’t allow her to get one just yet. So, she made a Perler bead smartphone instead.
Now, when her classmates pull out their phones, she pulls hers out too…and makes them all realize how much their attention is taken away from what’s going on around them, how little eye contact they make when their attention is on their device, and how much time they spend looking at and typing into a thing in their hands.
Laura Tierney, our founder and head coach, sat down with Kylee to talk about her experience and what she’s learned from it. (Turns out, she’s actually teaching others, too.)
I hear your parents won’t let you have a smartphone yet. How do you feel about that decision? Is it affecting your friendships with friends who do have phones?
KYLEE: I don’t have a smartphone. My parents told me that I don’t really have a need for it yet. Although I would like one, I have other ways to communicate with my friends. I have my own iPad Mini 4 so that I can communicate with my parents and friends while I’m at home. My parents gave me the Mini a few Christmases ago when I was 10 years old. I’m only allowed to use it on the first floor of our home (my bedroom is on the second floor).
I think that is a smart decision on their part because it gets me ready for having a phone of my own, which is much more tempting to use all the time. All of my friends in my grade have phones (literally, all of them!) and I’ve noticed that they are constantly looking down at their phones. They give off the impression that they really need them.
What other standards do you have with your iPad?
KYLEE: My parents only allow me to be on my iPad for 30 minutes at a time on Saturday and Sunday — so an hour total on the weekend. If we help out with something around the house we might get it for another 30 minutes. We are allowed to check out texts during the week in case friends are making plans to hang out or friends have homework questions, etc.
“All of my friends in my grade have phones (literally, all of them!) and I’ve noticed that they are constantly looking down at their phones.”
Do your other family members have devices?
KYLEE: Yes, my older brother (a year and a half older than me) got an iPad Mini before me, but I wasn’t allowed to use it. Not because I was too young, but because my brother wouldn’t let me use it! My dad also has a Kindle Fire that I use for games like Minecraft, Kingdoms, or Angry Birds. Now, I use my Mini to play games.
I also use it to see what my friends are posting on Instagram by Googling their Instagram accounts (I have to use Google because I can’t have an Instagram profile until I turn 13). I also use Google to look up ideas for Minecraft.
When my parents are driving and they need me to navigate directions for them or send texts to other people, I use their smartphones. Oh, and I’ll use Google to look up the designs of apps for the Perler bead phones!
Right! Let’s talk about your invention: The Perler bead phone. When did you make your first phone and why?
KYLEE: Well, I call it “my phone.” I made it during summer 2017 because I didn’t have a phone of my own. I figured out a way to create a phone the way I wanted it to look, as well as the apps that I would upload when I finally do get one. Since I’m the only one in my grade who doesn’t have a phone, this gave me something to focus on.
“When I showed my mom and dad, they were like, ‘Wow, that looks so cool!'”
The Perler bead phone took me about 2 hours to make. My first step was to find all the Perler beads, which took about an hour. It would take much less time if I had the colors sorted already, but I don’t! It’s more fun to go through all the colors in one huge tub. After I find all the colors, I lay them out. Then I iron it. The hard part is ironing on the patterned case that is attached to the back of the phone!
How did your friends and family react to such a creative idea?
KYLEE: So I told my friends, “Check out my phone!” My friends commented, “It’s so cool!” and another friend was a little more skeptical and replied with the thinking emoji. She wanted to know if it was real. When I showed my mom and dad, they were like, “Wow, that looks so cool!”
How many others have you made so far?
KYLEE: I’ve made four total. I’ve now decided on the basic design for the phone: 13 x 21 beads. I’ve fiddled around with the designs of the screensaver, the apps, and the phone case.
How do you decide which apps to add to the design?
KYLEE: I choose apps based on what I use right now, what my friends have told me about, and the apps that I want to get when I get a phone. I also look up apps in The Social Institute’s Social Locker Room. I’ve made Snapchat, Instagram, Text, FaceTime, Minecraft, Camera, YouTube, Email, Call, Spotify, Netflix. You can only have nine apps total on the phone. So rather than having lots of pages of apps, I like how I have to be selective with the apps I love the most.
Are you looking forward to when you get a smartphone of your own?
KYLEE: I’m looking forward to having the freedom a phone provides and also fitting in with my grade. I’ll probably get it when I’m 13. I’ll also be able to communicate with my parents when I’m outside my house.
What I’m not looking forward to is the risk of getting super anxious with my phone — like when my friend gets anxious when she doesn’t have her phone in her hand. So many people feel like they NEED their phones with them all the time. I don’t want that to happen. Also, with a smartphone, there’s all this responsibility that comes with it — like fees (that my parents are asking me to research), taking care of the case, or not dropping it so you don’t get a cracked screen.
Do you feel smartphones cause digital drama between students?
KYLEE: Yes, because if you don’t see a person’s face, you can’t tell their reactions, their tone of voice, and all the things you need to do to have a conversation end positively. You can’t read their face or what they’re saying (maybe you can a little if you use an emoji). If you talk to people face-to-face, you can hear their tone of voice and see their reactions.
“What I’m not looking forward to is the risk of getting super anxious with my phone… So many people feel like they NEED their phones with them all the time. I don’t want that to happen.”
What ONE THING would you tell kids who think they should have their own phone in 5th or 6th grade?
KYLEE: Hold off on a phone because it can be addicting and you don’t know when to put it down. Get a starter device (like an iPad mini) so you can establish guidelines with your parents, have regular check-ins with your parents, and you also only use Wi-Fi and use certain basic apps, like Text and FaceTime. FaceTime because when you’re young, it’s cool to see people on the other end of a conversation. And Text (usually when you’re older, like 5th or 6th grade) because you start to learn how to communicate with typed-out words.
And if there are other apps beyond that (like a game my friends are using that I hear about), I sit down together with my mom or dad and look up the app in the Social Locker Room, then download the app, and we walk through that app together on a laptop.
Do you keep making new phones for yourself to keep up with the new apps coming out? 🙂
KYLEE: Yes, I love creating new phones and would create ones for my friends if they ever asked me! But right now I love fiddling with the screen saver and case and finding out about all the new apps. This is quite fun!