My cell phone and I will celebrate our two-year anniversary this month.
No, your eyes are not failing you. I earned my first cell phone in 2005, at the venerable age of 19.
I said I "earned" the cell phone, because it was something I acquired for my new position as a reporter at the Collegian. I did not get the phone for social or safety reasons, although it has come in handy for both.
At 19, I was ready for a cell phone, even though many of my peers received their first phones in high school.
I must admit I am not financially accountable for my phone because of a family plan, but it still is a significant responsibility. So I was shocked after reading a March 29 report in The New York Times quoting the mother of a 9-year-old girl who received a cell phone as a reward for not being mean to her little sister for 30 days.
Children do not have the necessary responsibility skills to handle a cell phone at age 9. At age 9, my biggest obligation was making sure my class-picture money got to school safely from its envelope in my backpack.
Yankee Group, a technology consulting firm in Boston, estimates there will be 10.5 million preteen cell phone users by 2010, according to The Times' report. The report also parallels the decision age of getting one's ears pierced with the age when one should get a cell phone.
I got my ears pierced for the first time when I was 12. The amount of responsibility and maturity that comes with ear-piercing is not parallel to owning a cell phone. Ear-piercing is a chore that requires care for about six weeks; taking care of a cell phone is an evolving contract of monthly bills, managing minute-plans and, oh yeah, not losing the device.
According to The Times' report, cell phones serve as status symbols and electronic security blankets for households with split-custody arrangements and two-career households. Parents in the report claimed their child's cell phone was an emergency back-up system.
Historically, parents went thousands of years without cell phones and managed to raise their children safely without such a "back-up system." Oh, but Mom! I have to have a cell phone because all of my friends' parents let them have one.
Children must learn - at an early age - that they must earn luxuries, and their friends having a technological toy does not offer enough reason for them to have the same item.
In a material-driven society, let's redefine the boundaries of age-appropriateness when it comes to technological gadgets. Instead of granting a $100 "toy" - with additional monthly bills, remember - when children behave well for a month, let's reward them with positive reinforcement and something that breaks less bank, like a new T-shirt or an ice-cream cone.
Oh, and do not depend endlessly on something the size of your palm, that has restricted minutes and ranges, as a safety scapegoat.
Adrianne Deweese is a senior in mass communications and criminology. Please send comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
