The new ‘Mobile’ brigade

When mobile phones crossed over from the luxury bracket to a standard way of life,and incoming calls ceased to be charged,almost everyone made a beeline for cell-phone stores.

Written by Nupur Chaudhuri

August 7, 2010 04:22 AM IST

4 min read

The minimum age of owning a mobile phone seems to have dipped as kids who are four and five-years-old have their own cell-phones now

When mobile phones crossed over from the luxury bracket to a standard way of life,and incoming calls ceased to be charged,almost everyone made a beeline for cell-phone stores. Initially,the boom confined itself to 18-year-olds and above. Anyone younger with a mobile phone was gawked at. Slowly,the now ubiquitous trend widened to include the younger teens. School-going students began showing off their sporty handsets. This led to a phase of checks and bans on these phones in school. When I was in the eighth standard,my parents gifted me a mobile. That time,it was a big deal to own one. I would keep it off during school hours,and then later switch it on to talk to my parents,or send SMSes to friends who also had mobiles, says 22-year-old Gautam Khetarpal. In fact,he adds,his mobile phone was confiscated when he was in junior college! But now,I’ve noticed that even seven-year-olds have mobiles and it’s considered normal! he exclaims.

What Gautam doesn’t know is that today,evens even is too old for this trend! Nowadays,kids who are four years old have mobile phones. Falak Chaudhari,who will turn five in November,gleefully chats with her grandparents on her handset. Her mother Fareen smiles,She’s the only child in the family and her grandfather decided to get her a phone as everybody in the family has one. But Fareen makes sure that Falak doesn’t take her mobile phone to school. Its most important use is that we can be in touch with her when she goes with the maid to the society park to play. We don’t have to worry about anything as she’s just a phone call away, she says. Falak had always been very fascinated with mobile phones,and she had no trouble learning how to use the different applications. Fareen says,This generation is really very smart. When we were that age,we didn’t even dream of such gadgets!

In this era of communicating with people on the go,it’s hard to think of a time when people didn’t have cell-phones to contact each other and had to rely solely on landline phones. Deepti Chakraborty,mother of five-year-old Tina,who has a mobile phone,agrees,It would be unfair to compare times and generations. Besides,since Tina has a busy schedule and has to keep up with the same,giving her a cell-phone seemed like the best option. At least I know that she can be reached whenever I need to speak to her. Tina isn’t allowed to take her phone to school. I carry it to my dance and painting classes, the young girl says. I call Mom or my friends with it whenever I’m out playing or at my classes. I also enjoy playing games on my phone, she adds.

If one takes world statistics into account,then this new trend seems to be rising in every country. Yet,there are some who prefer to wait till their kids are older before gifting them with their personal phone. Six-year-old Ashima Mishra complains,My freind is five and she already has a phone,so why can’t I get one? My mum won’t listen. Her mother Gitika reasons,She’s too young. Maybe when she’s 13 years old,I’ll get her one.

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