this is dumb. everyone arguing about this is dumb. the parent is also dumb. The reality is that there is an economics of utility algorithm programmed into everyone and we innately seek out whatever makes us fit in with others and whatever entertains us with the least effort. It is a projection for the parent to assume their child has creative potential or a great creative enthusiasm when they, devoid of other ways to gratify their desire for novelty and expression, use the materials at their disposal. Now that her daughter has been given a device that satiates, at least for the moment, her desire to be popular, cool, and in-group, as well as provide her exponentially greater conduits for gratification and effortless creation-interaction, she is just like the rest of us.

If this parent is frustrated at all they should, instead of being conceited about vicarious passions, be mournful their child has fallen prey to consumerist joys and will likely never develop a true adult passion for enriching experiences and pastimes. If my child asked me for something everyone has i would get her the things everyone DOESNT because when she is older she will appreciate the novelty of her personal childhood more than she will remember being just like everyone else. I would get my child a basic feature phone like a light phone or a flipphone, and i would get them an e-ink tablet and, yes, a customized device for watching television and youtube, possibly an android tablet heavily locked down. I would prohibit the use of apps like tiktok, snapchat, and instagram, all of which any in-touch millennial knows are the key platforms driving this soulless era of contact appreciation and gameified approval from others that really makes generation z teenagers look like a bunch of zombies, far more than we or our parents did at the same age.