I recently worked at a preschool and also did student teaching in a forth-grade classroom. Obsession with cell phones is a common theme ranging from the two-year-olds to the ten-year-olds. In the preschool, the children love to play with the old, 9″ long phones (probably some of the first cell phones ever made). They fight over these phones! The pretend to make calls, and even pose with the phones, trying to look “cool.”
Cell Phone Obsession Begins at Birth
This is oddly reminiscent of when I was in preschool. Only, instead of talking on pretend phones to look cool,” we smoked pretend cigarettes instead. In the forth grade classroom, kids talk about cell phones as though they’re really cool. In my class of 32 low-income students only one kid actually has a cell phone. It’s big, clunky, and has prepaid minutes. Regardless, he is seen as “ultra cool” for having this device. So why are cell phones seen as “cool” in kids ranging from 2 to 10? Marketing and society! That’s why cigarettes were seen as “cool” when I was little, and it’s also why kids like cell phones now. Many advertisements are directed at kids, and others promote family sharing plans to encourage parents. I bet that by the time I have kids, children with cell phones will be the norm. O my!
