So I called them- turns out I DON'T HAVE FREE NIGHTS!! Okay the nice folks at T-mobile are going to retroactively change my plan to one with free nights and have it go back 2 months so this stupidity will only cost me an extra $10 per month. Oy.
I am seriously thinking about giving him his own cell phone for his birthday. I am comparing the family plans on all major carriers. T-mobile is by far the cheapest. Having been a customer since 2002, I have not ever had trouble with dropped calls or no signal, so I'll stick with them.
I am going to get him a phone that includes an MP3 player, which will be free with the plan. I am going to get a free camera phone when I change the plan for me. I wish this kid was old enough to get a job. I read this article recently about teens and mobile phones:
A November, 2000 report claims that cigarettes are slowly being replaced by an equally addictive obsession - the mobile phone.
Among some of the reports findings:
• A rise in mobile phone use during the late 1990s coincided with a decline in smoking among 15-year-olds.
• The prevalence of smoking fell to 23% in 1999 from 30% in 1996, the same year mobile phone use skyrocketed among 15- to 17-year-olds
"We hypothesize that the fall in youth smoking and the rise in ownership of mobile phones among adolescents are related," the authors write. They suggest that many teens cannot afford to sustain both habits and prefer the cutting-edge technology over the smoking.
They also note that the device is associated with many of the traits that attract teens to cigarettes:
• a sense of individuality and sociability
• a desire to rebel
• the need to bond with friends
"The marketing of mobile phones is rooted in promoting self-image and identity, which resembles cigarette advertising," the researchers write.
"As ownership increases, mobile phones will become essential for membership of peer groups that organize their social life on the move and by means of mobile phones," they conclude.
British Medical Journal November 4, 2000; 321: 1155
This makes me more sure about my decision to get him a phone. If my kids make it to adulthood without being smokers, I'll pat myself on the back. Neither of my parents smoked and I was smoking at age 13 until I quit at age 27. Let me tell you, quitting sucked really bad and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Better to never get started. I had to smoke to fit in. We walked to school through some woods and all the cool kids were smoking. I figured I'd learn just for those times I was pressured to do it, but not really smoke. So I wouldn't look stupid. Gee, after only one pack of practice, I kind of liked it. I remember trying to quit around age 15 and after lasting 2 days, cracking and so I smoked one out the window at my grandmother's house.
Then in our High School we had a commons area, where everyone smoked between classes. It is hard to believe now that smoking was allowed on campus. You wanted to be out there with everyone smoking. I heard they put the cabash on that wonderful cancer corral (as my Spanish teacher called it) about 20 years ago. Oh well, them was the days.
2 comments:
The cell phone chronicles are right...they've taken the place of cigarettes in the addictive dept. I was walking to the store and was waiting at a stop light. A gal pushed the traffic light button (that don't work..they're just there for show) and immediately retrieved the phone from her purse to talk during the red light..human behavior is fun to watch at times...
If you're worried about the kiddo going over your plan minutes, you can always get him a prepaid phone. That way when he uses up his monthly allotment, he's got to add more to use the phone. It beats getting a $300 phone bill!
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