> by enabling kids to just communicate within already established cliques?

Trust me, they already do that for the most part.

Yeah, let's make it even harder for lonely kids. I mean seriosly, why do highly social people have so little empathy for introverted ones?

As a former introverted kid, I never liked being forced into situations where I might have to actually talk to some other person, especially of the opposite sex.

But, I can look back and be grateful there were no smartphones to hide behind, otherwise there are some hang-ups I might never have gotten over.

Honestly, I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from. Never had that problem, maybe because I was never in strictly single sex peer group.

But something that would allow me to hide a bit in elementary scool would be welcome. I did not learned anything about communication when forced into those situations, I was just lonely and miserable.

'I don't get where special hung on talking with opposite gender comes from.'

Growing up with 3 sisters and learning at an early age what mental cruelty is.

When talking to the opposite gender some people worry they might be sending a wrong signal and imply a romantic or prurient interest when there might not be one, especially if they don't have a previous history of talking to the opposite gender very often.

As an introverted person, spending more time alone as a child was the last thing I needed. There were a lot of social skills that I didn't develop until my mid-to-late twenties that would have saved me a lot of grief if I had been pushed into developing them earlier in life.

Sorry but no. Even as an introvert, I can still recognize the problems that being able to escape into a smartphone during school would have caused me later in life.