Wait Until 8th is a national non-prof it organization designed to rally parents together in delaying smartphones until at least the end of 8th grade. More than 65,000 parents have signed the pledge nationwide and the momentum is growing everywhere due in part by the recent success of Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book, The Anxious Generation. Smartphones have changed childhood for children. What was once childhood based around play has quickly turned into childhood focused around snap chatting, instagramming, and watching You Tube. Parents feel powerless against this wave of growing technology and Wait Until 8th gives them a community of like minded peers also delaying the smartphone through middle school. Once you sign the pledge and 10 other parents in your child’s grade and school also sign you will be notified via e-mail with those parents’ names and e-mail addresses. This gives parents a way to connect with others who are also waiting.
Within East Cobb, we are building a community called Wait Until 8th East Cobb to help parents along on this path. Last spring, a group of moms from Timber Ridge Elementary led by Jess Wardell decided that they were going to sign the pledge for their children and started sharing it within their school circles. They quickly garnered an active pledge per grade (10+ signatures) and before long had over 85 signatures at Timber Ridge. Down the road at Mount Bethel Elementary School, I had been following Wait Until 8th online for a few years and was inspired by the success of Timber Ridge. I decided right then to sign the pledge for my own 3 children and to get the movement started at Mount Bethel. Through word of mouth, e-mailing friends, and posting on Facebook groups I was also able to get over 80 pledges in 2 months. I then decided to build this across the entire East Cobb community so that parents in different feeder schools can work together in this movement. As of mid-August, there are now four Wait Until 8th schools in East Cobb and 17 schools with a “liaison” working to get pledges activated.
We look forward to many more parents in East Cobb joining our movement this school year to delay smartphones and to keep educating the community on the reasons to delay. Many parents feel smartphones are a necessity but there are a growing number of basic phone alternatives for talk/text only that parents can purchase. Smartphones can be an academic distraction, impair sleep, increase the risk for anxiety and depression, and increase the risk for cyber bullying among other things. The risk is too great. To learn more and sign the pledge, go to www.waituntil8th.org/why-wait. Follow us locally @waituntil8th_eastcobb on Instagram.
