| By :
Mark Etinger
"Back in my day…" a lot of stories start this way when kids begin to ask for newfangled technology. Parents, grandparents, and the like are all saying "back in my day we didn't HAVE cell phones, and we turned out just fine!" This is true. There were no gsm cell phones back when your grandparents were growing up. Even now, for someone in their mid to late twenties, they can still remember rotary dial phones. There is no way that a child who is currently two years old will be able to know that those even existed. Technology has boomed in the last twenty to thirty years. There is so much more that you can do now that you couldn't even have dreamed of when your grandparents were kids. But does that mean that the technology is bad? Ask the child who is using their unlocked gsm mobile phone to look up a fact for a term paper on Wikipedia. Ask the kids who are keeping up with their friends on gsm mobile phones through texting and from many, many miles away. These kids will tell you that the technology is not only great but necessary. By now, many people have seen the video of the baby playing with the Apple iPad and then trying to do the same things with a paper magazine. If there was ever any sign that technology will soon outstrip even the savviest of us, this was it. Technology is becoming more and more prevalent in our society but the question of "when should kids get cell phones" is still a major debate. I hate to say it but "back in my day" I didn't have a phone until I was in high school. But we can't stay in those days forever. Kids need gsm mobile phones to stay in touch with parents who are giving them the freedom to commute to school by themselves on the train or ask to get picked up from practice after hours. This technology is necessary for parents and kids to stay in touch. I still believe kids are going to need the ever diminishing skill of face to face communication, so perhaps setting up play dates where no cell phones are allowed is a good idea. But technology is coming on swift and strong, you won't be able to avoid it forever. Just make sure that you get them a nice strong phone so the risk of breaking it on the side of their crib is minimal.
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