Second Thoughts About Kids & Cell Phones

Reading this article was sort of amusing. Being a teenager myself living in a suburban town with children that get cell phones at the age of 11, I related a whole lot to this piece. One excerpt from this article was so familiar. "But cell phones took us by surprise: so small, so innocent, so powerful in the hands of a bored or twisted teen who now has an extremely efficient tool for wasting time, cheating on tests, organizing fights, bullying classmates, phoning in bomb threats, and arranging drug deals." I see things like this happen at least four times a day. Just in the past two years, our school has had exposed pictures via text message, bomb threats (more than once) and other things no one wants the administration to know. From personal experience, I know how powerful cell phones actually are. Hence, the reason why teens never leave home without it. They're stylish, useful, techie, and overall the main reason why teens do the things they do. Imagine life without your cell phone. You would have to find a local restaurant or insert coins in a pay phone just to call your mom to tell her where you were. It is much more convenient for teens to text their friends than call. "Teachers know that students can text under the desk without glancing down, their phones set with a ringtone pitched too high for adults to hear. We are fighting on their turf. They are up in the trees and underground and in caves while we march around in our bright red uniforms trying to defend their dignity and virtue. Not a fair fight." This quote is extremely true and not to get my teenage ego going but adults really can't stop us. We will find a way around the rules and the only thing elders can do is to hope we don't do anything that harms our future.