Posted on 01/01/2007 1:45:53 PM PST by Coleus
Joe Skarimbas was just learning to read when he decided he was ready to join the digital age. "When he went to first grade he said, 'When am I going to get a cell phone?'" said Joe's mother, Tara Skarimbas.
The Leonia family decided to hold off on getting young Joe a phone until he turns 10 and starts walking home from school alone. But his mother understands the temptation to get her son, who turns 8 this month, a cell phone as soon as possible.
"Just for safety purposes," she said, glancing toward the new Disney Mobile kiosk during a shopping trip to the Paramus Park mall last week.
As the adult and teenage cell phone market becomes saturated, cell phone companies are targeting younger and younger users. This holiday season several companies -- including Disney, Verizon, TicTalk and Firefly -- are pushing brightly colored cell phones specially designed for children as young as kindergartners.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Absolutely! Ask any real estate agent. They can conduct 90% of their business while in their car, rather than making trips back and forth to their office to use the phone.
Lots of kids go to school without cell phones and are just as safe as if they had one. They have no need to carry one around with them IN the school from class to class.
Have you recently tried to find one? From the Miami Herald:
Pay phones have become a dying breed
Nationwide, about one million pay phones have been yanked from street corners, bar bathrooms, airport terminals, hotel lobbies and other spots since 1999. There are fewer than one million still in service, industry experts say, and the number gets smaller every day.Florida has lost about 80,000 pay phones in the past seven years, leaving fewer than 40,000 in service today, Renard said.
I could list over 100 million people who lived through their teen aged years and made it. We drove at night, worked at night, went to school during the day and at night. We even lived through the depression, WWII, nuclear bombs, fallout shelters, air raid drills in schools, the riots of 1968. Heck, we even walked to school and some actually woke up at the crack of dawn to work on farms while today, the sniveling liberals want to start school at 10 am for the poor teens because they can't sleep at night and can't wake up early. They don't make enough melatonin to fall asleep. One of these days the umbilical cord must be cut.
And this girl would still be alive if she thought she could simply call her mom:
A six-year-old female missed the bus. She chased the bus and fell under the dual wheels as the driver pulled away from the next stop.
You sound very cynical and judgmental and not as though you have any children.
Those of us that grew up the in the 1950's, 60's and 70's. Did just fine without cell phones, ipods and so on.
Yes they can. See post #86.
"I sat in the MS office last year waiting for my son and watched the secretary tell a 12 year old girl she couldn't call her mom at work because it wasn't a local call."
I hate my (company-paid, always-on) cell phone and would gladly give it away if I could. Other than for emergencies, I can't imagine why anyone would carry one, let alone a kid.
And so on. Total Drivel. Annoying, too.
I understand what you are saying, but when I went to high school (late 60's early 70's) twice we had huge riots and our school was in lockdown for "hours" as well. We stayed in our class and when the school released us parents came for us. How is that very different? And we didn't have cell phones.
Of course kids need cell phones. It's a lifeline to mom and dad. You'd have a lot less abducted kids if they all could call mom or dad when they were in a scary situation. Criminals seem to avoid situations where they see someone dialing 911. I had a dude attacking me in a road rage type deal once, and he backed off when he saw me calling the cops. I still got the jerk's plate number, though. No cell phone and I'd be missing some teeth, at the very least.
My kid do swimming, and I am not hanging out in the pool area for 12 hours a week. On occasion, there is a problem. I like knowing they can contact me instantly, as they are not allowed to use the school phones, and they no longer have pay phones.
Now how do you know she "would be alive" if she'd had a cell phone? There is absolutely nothing in that story to indicate having a cell phone would have made her not chase the bus!
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