Cell Phones

[Pink_Bug]

How old were you when you got your first cell phone?
How young do you think is too young to have one?

I got a cell phone 7 years ago when I was a junior in high school.

My younger cousin just got one, she is in the 7th grade. My boyfriend owns his own communications store, and he said some parents came in to get one for their son who is in the fifth grade!

[Pink_Bug]

I guess I forget to mention the reason that I asked the question...
My step-daughter is 13 and in the 8th grade and that is what she wants for Christmas. So I was just curious as to what the "proper age" is these days. I didn't get my cell phone until I was in college and I had to take on the responsibility of the bill myself. I just think there is a lot of responsibility that comes with things like cell phones and am not sure at what age you can handle that responsibility.

[mu_agd]

i got one the day i got my license at 16 and a half. my parents didn't want me out driving without one. but i was very restricted on the calls i could make on it. junior year of college was when i got one that i could use all the time.

[KSigkid]

Sophomore year of college I got my first one. It basically was a way to save money as an alternative to getting a landline.

I think age depends on the person. If someone's paying for it on their own, then let them get it at whatever age they want. If not, it depends on the person's understanding of cell phones (costs, roaming, etc.).

[DolphinChicaDDD]

Freshman year of college...when my mom was outraged at paying phone bills at 2 different colleges (mine and my brothers) and for when both of us would make our drives to school. We had a family plan, but were always responsible for overage charges.

[adpialumcsuc]

I got my first one when I went away to college because my parents wanted to know my drive was safe. However I rarely used it at all. As a Sophmore in college I got one that I used a lot more.

I don't know what cell phone plans are like in your area but in Northern California there are a couple of companies that provide an unlimited plan for about $35.00. It is a great deal for teens who talk on them all the time. My boss let her 14 year old daughter get one on this plan because she could all she wanted.

[emleepc]

Got mine when I started driving....for the times when I was going to be later than I thought, or for emergency use. Then when I moved to college, it was the only phone I had. I'm so used to having one now, that it's all I use! I don't even use the house phone at all.

I don't really see the need for a phone until you start driving. I'm sure there are other circumstances that might warrant having one, but I don't know what they are. I wouldn't have needed one before I started driving.

[Susan_Renee]

I was 17 when I first got a cell phone. Only reason I got it was because I had also just gotten my first car and my parents wanted me to have it just in case. It was my bro's old cell phone. It was quite shitty, but I wasn't gonna complain. I got a much better one right before I left for college.

[Kevin]

I was 17, then working at RadioShack. I was allowed to bypass the credit check, and back then Sprint PCS wasn't doing contracts. I think it was my senior year of HS. That would have been back in '96.

[TheEpitome1920]

I got my first cell phone in college. I was 20. I only had it for a few months then I recently got another one this summer. In high school I had a pager.

[AOIIsilver]

23..but then again it is because cell phones were not really considered a neccissity until then!
Silver

[adpiucf]

I was 22.

PB, I understand what you are saying. I can't fathom what a 13 year old would do with a cell phone, other than run up the minutes.

Maybe it is a good thing-- you can set up a restricted plan and set limits for her now (like the phone is used only on weekends, and never in school), and consequences for abusing phone privileges (like having to do extra house chores to pay down overage charges, and loss of phone privileges or other things). It could be a good way to teach her responsibility. In a few years, you can do the same with a debit card and teach her about credit card debt.

This way, when she gets to college some day, she won't have the added stress of freaking out about learning to manage finances for the first time-- she'll have had practice at home.

1997...I was 18, a freshman in college and it was around the time cell phones were getting smaller and everyone was getting one. At that time I also got my first job, so I was responsible for paying my own monthly bills. At that time I was paying like $29.99 for like, 300 minutes + unlimited weekends or something like that.

I don't know when it'd be an appropriate age to get a phone. Kids these days are so spoiled with technology and the like, but if your stepdaughter is responsible and she's able to "pay" for her bills by doing chores around the house, then maybe getting her a phone won't be too bad, especially if her dad wants to keep tabs on her. 13 isn't so bad, I think. 5th graders and elementary school kids though? Now that's crazy...they shouldn't be hanging out away from their parents for long periods of time anyway.

From 9th-12th grade in HS I had a pager, and while I didn't have a job then, I did errands and chores for my mom in order to "pay her back" for her taking care of the pager bills.

[DeltAlum]

I wish somebody would uninvent cell phones. I hate the damned things.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.