The final status symbol is the cell phone. Not to have a cell phone relegates you to the class of the have nots. To have a plain phone without ring tones, call forwarding, caller i.d and a list of preferred contacts is to be on the fringe of the rich who have all those features and more.
I remember in 1995 when I purchased my first cell phone, the static, the out of area and the multitude of problems. I was content if I had been able to reach my calling party. And, I wasn't going cheap either. I was paying a few hundred dollars for the phone and extra for the service.
Now eleven years later cell phones are transformed into adjunct telephones with clear and international calling capabilities. I know I had to use my telephone to reach my daughter in England on her cell phone. The range wasn't a problem and we spoke for as long as we wanted without interruption.
But are cell phones becoming too important to very young people who have more than enough distractions as it is? Are these phones giving some youth who are troubled access to illegal ways of making money through fast contacts on the cell phone? Why would a mother or father agree to pay for a cell phone for a child in grade school? How did parents even important and working parents contact their children in school before the advent of cell phones?
Innovation and changing and improving communication devices are an important part of our culture, but parents isolating themselves from contact with principals, their secretaries, and other individuals whom their children are making contact with each day is not beneficial in my mind.
