Ask your 16 year old please if he is BU

[HerderofDragons]

16 year old DS needs a new (to him it will be a refurbished decent second hand) phone. This apparantly has to be a iphone as a Samsung is, I quote, "social suicide" and that "just about every 16 year old in the UK would agree".

I am deliberately leaving out vital details like who is paying (though it is fair to say neither he nor I are rolling in cash) to get a pure opinion poll on his statement please. Obviously he clearly is being VU but if you have a 16 year can you ask them if they think he is BU please?
Is he being unreasonable?

Mine both have Samsung. I have Pixel.
I pay, I choose. When they are paying for their phones, they can choose.

My son has always had Samsung, he's 16 now and just got the newest one after a lot of hand me downs. He pays his own contract (in his dad's name) with his wages.

Same. Apparently only old people use them.

Huh. My iPhones go 7-10yrs easy. Perhaps androids not that good of a deal if you have to replace after only 3yrs?

Thanks everyone and everyones teens.
Am genuinely surprised by the intensity of feeling and wide array of opinions!

Ultimately he will get the price of a second hand Samsung from us and of course it's his choice if he wants to work/save up whatever for the extra 200 quid to make it a second hand iphone.

I'm 50 and have never been into stuff anyway so just find it rather sad and bemusing!

No and no. local High school and low income

16yo DD says anyone who cares which phone they have is a wanker.

But then she shrugged at me and gave me a lecture about ethical electronics when I offered to replace her 4 year old Motorola a few months back.

My 13, 15 and 17 yr olds all have Huaweis. No social suicide here. They say no-one looks at/ cates what other people have?

I am a Samsung user, absolutely no interest in an apple phone.
My children are all Apple users.
My 16 year old asked for a £500 refurbished phone for her birthday.
It is the ONLY one she will get.
A part time job will need to be gotten for her next phone as I certainly will not pay for another one.
Obscene money IMO.

Is that meant to be sarcastic I can't tell?

My DD's iPhone is literal rubbish compared to my DS's Google Pixel. The durability and build quality is just awful. It gets smashed up at the drop of a hat. Unlike DS's crack free screen. I mean come on everyone knows that about iPhones. And the technology is better on my DS's because he can afford the latest one.

Both myself and DH have iPhones. I've had Samsungs before but just didn't enjoy the experience as much.
I'm a teacher and I'd say the majority of my class have their parents iPhone, with a few Samsungs and other androids thrown in the mix. There are far more iPhones than alternatives. They frequently brag to each other about which iPhone they have and how they're so much better😳

My secondary age children both have Motorolas - neither of them give a shit what brand it is.

My ds 15 has a Google Pixel. We also have a 'spare' iphone7 for when one of us has our phone pinched.

Mine never had a choice, they had my hand me down phone until they could afford their own. Never gave them a contract either. PAYG only. I was the exception to the rule according to my children and other parents.
Get what you can afford, he’s got two choices. Take it or leave it.

Sounds like something someone who can’t afford an iPhone would say 😂

😂😂😂😂

Would he not fancy a Blackberry?

DS16 has an iPhone but his mates are a mixture of iPhone, Samsung, Google and Huawei.

Nobody cares.

Apparently "caring what phone someone has is totally uncool" 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was just cruising the thread because I don’t have a 16 yr old. But I know a number of senior people at major tech firms with iPhones, and not just at Apple

People in tech, I mean

This is also true!

I was an uncool kid too. However now, as an adult, I know that fashion is stupid bullshit designed to make you buy more stuff. All the more so in the case of tech, where there are functional differences between products and you should be choosing based on those rather than which one is 'cool'. And I'm much happier for knowing this.

Things like this can be important to teens. Most grow out of caring so much about it, but a lot of adults have things that they're bothered about too whether it's cars, handbags, shoes, watches etc.

My kids have never been that fussed but my son definitely went through a stage of being a little more bothered about fitting in when he was aged 14-16. I think it's part of raising kids, helping them to fit in if that's what they want, as long as they understand it's not really important and to never make fun of others who don't have things. My son always said he knew it was crap to feel under pressure to fit in but he just didn't want to stand out. As an adult, he couldn't care less what others think of him and feels mo pressure to fit in at all.

I was an uncool kid too. However now, as an adult, I know that fashion is stupid bullshit designed to make you buy more stuff. All the more so in the case of tech, where there are functional differences between products and you should be choosing based on those rather than which one is 'cool'. And I'm much happier for knowing this.

It's much easier to not care as an adult though. For teens, it's much harder. It's better to have a bit of feeling towards the awful peer pressure they have. They're likely to care less when they get older.

I don't have a teenager but hoping she'll be in the lucky to have a phone camp 😆 she's 6.5 years old and one of her school friends has an iPhone! 😳

I don't buy into apple and never have understood the hype. I love Google Pixels and Motorola's and that is what I'll get DD when the time comes.

DS says it’s a mix and it’s girls rather than boys who care about phones. He has an iPhone (we all do) for ease of use. I have a Samsung for work and I detest it.