Posted on 03/30/2005 9:23:34 AM PST by thefactor
Kids spend more time in high school sending text messages than reading textbooks, a New Jersey father discovered to his horror — after his 16-year-old daughter rang up a whopping $1,058 cellphone bill.
The bill covered a month and a half, was more than 200 pages long and listed more than 12,000 text messages, said John Taylor of Oaklyn.
His daughter Ashley had sent and received almost all those messages while she was in school, where students are supposed to stow their cellphones in their lockers before classes start.
Ashley, a junior at Gloucester City HS, "no longer has a cellphone," said Taylor, who now knows why his daughter has been failing math and social studies.
"She was busy text-messaging in both classes and she got F's in both — from not paying attention," he said.
Her cellphone bill showed messages sent "at 8:01, 8:02, 8:03, 8:04 — all the way through to 3 p.m. on some days," he said.
"Everyone in school" is doing it, he said.
"The kids are using their cellphones to contact other kids or to get answers from each other," he said.
"My daughter told me some kids use them when they have tests, they text-message answers."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I understand EXACTLY what you are saying.
My husband does turn his pager, and the other electronic device the company gives him, off when he gets home - but convincing him to turn off the cell phone is practically impossible.
I am a notorious self-secretary. Caller ID has made things easier for me than an answering machine - it takes far less time to glance at a number than it does to wait for a message to determine if I'm interested in taking the call.
My Parents would have beat me severely if something like this had happened...
Of course we just had tin can phones and message drums back then.
I remember the story from my father the first time my brother did such a thing...........I was already on my own and having to pay my own bills when I did something that stupid. And that was landline - long before anyone had cell phones.
A couple of months ago my husband was going through bills and started questioning me about the house phone bill and if we really needed all the extras we were paying for. I was honest with him and said there were featurs that we didn't need..BUT.....and it was a big BUT.......by having those things available we had unlimited long distance and a bill that was the same every month. I then proceeded to tell him of all the calls I had made in the previous week (forget the month) and then reminded him of all the calls he made to his manager and co-workers, all long distance calls........the issue has never been raised again.
Ok I overreacted and I'm sorry... The concept of parents paying $50 a month for an impractical (for a 15 year old) luxury and thinking they're being firm is mindboggling! My parents didn't let me have any electronic devices in my room till I was 17.
TUFFFFFFFFF
Exaggeration, sorry. Meant no personal TV/phone/computer, e.g. it's all "family" and supervised in high traffic areas. Thanks for the Amish tidbit though... Interesting.
"Why are they even allowed in school?"
I was asking myself the same question. They suspend kids for bringing an aspirin to school, yet they will let these same kids text-message throughout the school day. Can't the teachers hear the "clicking" of their little fingers on the keypads and notice that their faces are looking at their laps and not at the them???? SHEESH!!
Good to hear!!!!
I am still using my old Motorola bag phone,
We had one of them - but were unable to activate it in the area we lived at the time without some unbelievably outrageous fee.........close to $1,000 and that was about 7 years ago.
Here, they treat it as a regular phone, but it is getting really hard to find replacement parts.
You must be in an area where the tower density is pretty high. Here, there are a lot of areas which are right out of range, even for the bag phone, and this is mostly prairie.
rofl Ping! for you Stickman
That is what I hate about my phone.........the keypad is so tiny.
I'm like you - I have the necessary numbers programmed into it and rarely even use them.
I like to pay attention to driving when I am driving, and it is when I am out of the house that I have the cell phone - and if it rings, it doesn't get answered until I can pull over. The one I used to have, before we had to change services and thus phones, I could grab and answer without looking at it and just tell the caller Hang on til I pull over.
No problem.
I understand exactly what you are saying, though. My 6 year old has her own computer, and has since she was 3 because she was removing things from mommy and daddy's computers - but she is not online unless we say so and only undersupervision.......in fact because mine took a dive the other night I am using hers until the new parts for mine arrive.
I lived in an area with a large Amish population for a long time and learned many interesting things. They are not only wonderful craftsmen, but wonderful people.
Why do I suspect this girl doesn't have a job, and probably couldn't hold one?
Mine, too, is only on for when I feel like I'm up to talking to people.
Now I understand how I've lived without one my whole life.
Well, I'm not married yet but I know what to look forward to. I cannot imagine where the technology is going to be in a few years.
Hopefully the novelty will wear off in the near future.
bttt
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