I was reading something, uh, somewhere this weekend (that right there is the danger of mindless surfing and link-clicking: If you read something interesting you may not remember where to find it later) about cell phones for kids. It seems like everyone in high school is getting a cell phone and texting their friends. I remember I felt pretty darn cool when I was in high school because I had my own phone in my room and then when I turned 16 I got my own phone line (my parents paid the first three months and after that I had to chip in). That was like the ultimate in phone freedom.
Of course, no one had cell phones at that time and the only people with pagers were doctors and dealers so I couldn’t have imagined the concept back then. Now it seems like everyone wants a cell phone earlier and earlier.
What age do you think is right for cells? For those of you who have already started in on the teen years, do your kids own one? What rules and guidelines would you set out? I used to leave with my friends in the morning all summer and only come home for meals, and no one could call me unless we were at another friend’s house - usually we were out somewhere and completely incommunicado but these days it seems no one wants that. What are your plans?
译文:
孩子们的手机【为人母】
这个礼拜前些时候，我正在看一些东西，呃，是关于孩子们的手机的。（心不在焉的上网并乱点链接的后果就是，如果你看到了一些很有趣的东西，但是之后你可能会记不起来如何再去找到它。）看起来，似乎每个高中生都有一个手机，并且能发消息给他们的朋友。 我记得我还在高中里的时候，我觉得那真是太酷了，因为我在我的房间里有了自己的电话，然后到我16岁的时候，我就有了我自己的电话专线（我爸妈帮我付了前三个月的钱，后面的就要我自己来了）。那就像是电话自由的极致。
当然，那个时候没有人有手机，而且唯一有BB机的人就只有医生和商人了。所以我不能回忆起当时它的概念。现在，看起来每个人都越来越早的想要一个手机。
你认为什么年龄用手机才是适合的呢？对于那些在十几岁就有手机的你们来说，你们的孩子有么？你会定出什么规则和指导条款呢？我以前早上常常和我的朋友们出去，整个夏天都是这样，只有在吃饭的时候才回来，这样，除非是我们在另一个朋友的家里，否则就没有人会打电话给我了——通常情况下我们都是在外面，而且是完全的与别人没有联系。但是这样的日子，好像现在已经没有人会想要这样过了。你的计划是怎样的呢？