"Mom? Is this your phone or mine?"I am currently reading an upper MG/lower YA adventure about a boy who's got to make his way across country on his lonesome due to a series of misadventures. He has a cell phone, and the (improbable) means by which the author manages to prevent his grandfather and parents from taking his calls is little short of hilarious. Then his phone's battery dies, and he doesn't have a charger.
Cell phones have complicated the way modern writers tell a story. Horror writers have it even worse. Who cares if Leatherface is chasing you through the woods when you can dial 911 in a jiff? Oh, darn. No service bars! Let terror commence.
As this handy means of communication becomes more affordable and available, I am seeing it more and more in the hands of the youngest generation.
MG writers, I'm wondering how young is TOO YOUNG to have a phone of your own? My 12-year-old cousin has one (and is fairly responsible with it). Is she the exception or the norm? Phone in, parents and adult busybodies!
—posted by Timothy Power
I've seen kids as young as nine or ten with them. Personally, we made our son wait until he was twelve, and even then we regulated who he could call until he turned thirteen. He thought we were mean!
ReplyDeleteMy son is 8 and is indignant that we won't by him an iphone, though he has no clue how to even use a cell phone! He said his best friend has an iphone, but it turns out, it's his mom's broken phone that he just plays with at home--though my 8 year old swears it works! ;)
ReplyDeleteAh...kids!
I found a cell-phone on the playground and when I finally found its owner it was a shaken and tearful 7-year-old!
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't think I allow my kids one until they're at least twelve, but the truth is, I think age appropriateness of cell-phones is very relative. The question is, what are they using it for? Texting friends or for family planning and emergencies? You can put all kinds of locks, bells and whistles on a child's phone- gps tracking, timers to turn it off at certain times, only let them dial certain numbers, so it's more of a safety device than anything.
I can imagine a cell-phone could add all sorts of mayhem to a MG novel! Food for thought.
Well, I can say about 95% of my junior-high students have their own cell phones. Is it too young? Not sure, but it creates problems in the classroom when kids are trying to text under the desks.
ReplyDeleteOh my. We've had to shut down all phone discussions with my ten-year-old who spent the last month proclaiming why it was so important to have one. The child has called someone once in his life.
ReplyDeleteUntil he's in high school, I see no need. And honestly, I was fine without one then, so they're not really required, you know?
My niece got one at 11 and mainly used it for texting. Also for emergency calls and such. Her younger sister got one at the same age but hardly touches it--just a difference in their personalities, I guess.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I suppose I wouldn't mind reading a story with a MG character having a cell phone if the author could spin it in a like-able way. I envision all sorts of possibilities for the snooty bully to have a cell phone - ha!
ReplyDeleteMy oldest (only four years old!) is fascinated by his parents' cell phones. And we don't even have all the bells and whistles on ours. Even our two year old will hold a calculator up to his ear and have pretend conversations - ha! I think part of the fascination comes with modeling what they see the adults doing. I remember I had an insatiable desire for my own checkbook when I was very little - not because I understood money or buying things or anything, but because I always saw my mom whip that little book out in the checkout line and sign her name with the pen attached to the register, and something about the whole checking the ID and writing the numbers on the corner of the check was enviable. It fascinated me.
So I can totally see the intrigue, the promise of independence, the potential for plot twists in MG fiction. Placing the mc in roles that require them to be independent or act beyond their age is classic MG, and a phone could play in nicely to that. But what I find interesting in books does not necessarily translate over. An engaging mc with a phone is a far cry from the zoned out kid playing angry birds without end. I don't really see a need for my kids to have a phone "like an adult" until they are adults.
I worked at a very wealthy elementary school last year (K-6) and I never heard of any students with cell phones. I figure that population, being very affluent with high parent involvement, would be more likely to have cell phones than any other, but I never saw one or heard about a kid with a cell phone. Maybe it starts in middle school.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Imagining kids talking on calculators is cracking me up.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a transcript of two 12-year-olds talking on the phone. Might be funny (the first time)!
My son got his cell phone when he was 12. The only kids younger than that at my daughter's school now (K-12) are 5th and 6th graders who walk home after school and stay home by themselves until their parents come home. The parents want the kids to check in. My son's school (7th grade and up) is very strict about cell phone usage and texting. They will confiscate any cell phone used in class. It sounds like it's a necessary policy because some kids can't seem to stay away from texting.
ReplyDeleteI meant K-6, not K-12!
ReplyDeleteMy stepson got one at age 12. He barely uses it for calls and doesn't really need it since he's never in a situation where an adult isn't around. Half the time he just leaves it lying around until the battery is dead. The other half of the time he's texting friends :) If I get my daughter one when she's that young, I'll be blocking texting (okay, I say that now, but who knows :))
ReplyDeleteTimothy - Yeah, it's pretty funny. The worst part is that my oldest has the pausing in the pretend conversation down so spot on that often I catch myself lowering my voice so I don't interrupt his "phone call". :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, cell phones make writing a trick. Luckily I write younger MG.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my niece has had a phone since she was 10...because all her friends have phones. And where I live, parents buy cell phones for their Jr High kids like it is part of the school supply list.
My girls won't get one till their 12 and they have to share it...when they go out or go babysit.
I can see having a cell phone for kids who walk home from school and stay home by themselves--though there is such a thing as a home phone. We are considering a limited cell phone for our older daughter for when she is dropped off for dance classes and I need to run errands. I have just started dropping her off and "leaving" (sitting in the parking lot) because I told her there was no reason for her to have a phone unless I left the building. The dance studio prefers no parent leave their child until they are 8 anyway. I used a portable phone in highschool to have my mom pick me up after games (she needed the car).
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on the kid and the situation.
Hmm, now I'm thinking of a story about a kid who doesn't have a cell phone. Would they be the bully or the victim? Hmm...
Tweeners have phones--especially girls. Boys, not so much. I write older YA. In the MS I'm shopping now, the main character doesn't have a phone because he's poor. In my new WIP I'm very consciously giving everyone a phone. I've seen agents' comments about reading too many MSs with characters who don't have phones. It's not realistic.
ReplyDelete12 seems to be the standard age, but there were many of my daughter's classmates who had them at 8. I think it's funny when parents say that their children need the cell phone to contact THEM-- this is wishful thinking. The minute children get a phone, they are texting their friends. And really, they NEVER call. The iPod Touch seems to be the big thing now, and the kids often use Facetime, so talking on a cell phone might actually make a book dated!
ReplyDeleteBoth my kids have phones now. We were so resistant until the airline let my daughter wander away from the gate when she was on her way to meet my sister in Boston as an unaccompanied minor.
ReplyDelete