Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

 To buy or not to buy, that seems to have become the question confronting a growing number of parents when their children ask for a smartphone. Yet the reasons young kids want smartphones have changed with the times. Recently, an eight-year-old girl from Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality asked her parents to buy her a phone so she could send digital red envelopes to her classmates. The girl said it's a tradition for class leaders and the top three students to send their peers small amounts of money through their smartphones; if she doesn't do it, she will be isolated. Thanks to the rapid development of technology, today's young people are trying to maintain their "social" relations through money at such an early age, instead of sweets and cookies. They might have no idea about money, or the concept that money does not come easily. Perhaps in this case, avoiding isolation is all that matters to the girl. However, it's sad to see that no proper guidance over smartphones or money has been given to kids like her by teachers or parents.