Does your teen have a cell phone?
Teen Cell Phone Usage
Does your teen have a cell phone?
Teen Cell Phone Use
My fifteen year old son complained to
me the other day that he was the only one in his class that did not
have a cell phone. I found this hard to believe at first. Then I
started to look around and realized that this may be true. I have
five children. Three of them have cells and two do not. My six year
old is too young to have one and my fifteen year old cannot afford
one yet. The other three teens have income to support the cell phone.
According to http://pewresearch.org “Cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends, with cell calling a close second. Some 75% of 12-17 year olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004.” One in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.”
When I was fifteen cell phones were not that common and they were expensive. The problem here is I told my kids that they needed to have a part time job before I would sign for a cell contract. I am ultimately responsible for the bill; but they would pay for it themselves. I am a firm believer in teaching young adults that they need to earn things like cell phones. I still see cells as luxury; but I have since learned that parents are seeing the cell-phone as a “I know where my kids are at all times...” device. Is this accurate though?
How safe are kids who own cell phones? PEW has some interesting research on what teenagers think about mobile phone safety:
58% of teens from schools that forbid cell phones use them during class anyway
31% of teens that take their cell phones to school send text messages during class everyday
4% of teens age 12-17 have sent a "sext message"
15% of teens age 12-17 have received a "sext message"
8% of older teens sent "sext messages", 30% of older teens received them
No gender difference in sending or receiving "sext messages"
52% of teens talk while driving a car
34% of teens text while driving a car
26% of teens have been bullied via text message
Girls text message more than boys
Has the toy become the tool? Do we need this tool so much that we are spending the grocery money to obtain it? Have cell phones become status symbols?
After researching this subject I feel more empathy for my teen who is without a cell phone. Do your children have cell phones? How old are they? Or are we just victims of corporate brainwashing making us consumer zombies ready to dump our money on the latest gadget?
