I feel like I had a problem socially starting jr high without a phone at all in late 00s. All your friends communicate/plan/etc over phones so not having one you're missing out on all of that.
Smartphone is debatable, but I feel like 6/7th grade kinda needs a phone of some sort in current society
for people ootl on D like me, this seems to explain the problems: https://dpldocs.info/this-week-in-arsd/Blog.Posted_2024_01_01.html