There’s a lot of interesting dilemnas around kids and mobile phones. When do you get one for them? Is it ok to track them with a GPS? (It’s definitely tempting!) But the one raised by this article, the fact that kids might feel dependent on phones, didn’t ring true with me. Mobile phones for children: Do we want them? – Crave at CNET.co.uk.
Some day your mobile phone will turn off or will lose a signal, but fortunately for you there was a time when you didn’t have one so you won’t completely freak out. What about the next generation?
I’m sure there are a ton of things in my life that I take for granted that I might "freak out" if we didn’t have. Here are some things that I realize I take for granted that I’m sure my grandparents didn’t:
- running water (ours got shut off for a day with no warning and it was a real pain – at least we could go to the gym to take a shower!),
- electricity,
- air conditioning in my car,
- cell phone (ever left the house without it and then "really needed" it? or better yet, had your SO leave the house without his and not been able to call him?),
- ATMs (the one near my house wouldn’t give me any money one day and we almost didn’t get Mexican food for dinner!),
- cable modem (I walk around the house lost when it quits working),
- Google (I’d be seriously upset if Google search disappeared),
- Google maps,
- telephone numbers on the web and/or 411 (I tossed all the phone books),
- credit cards, (how would you buy online without them?)
- …
Yet I’ve coped without all of these things, a great hardship!, and I’m sure our kids will be able to handle not having a cell phone that works no matter how much of a pain they think it is.