Mobile issues...

[Paula]

My son managed to break his phone yesterday :roll: He didn't admit what happened to it "maybe it fell..." but it looks like it's been stepped over or otherwise left under something. The cover is scratched and twisted and the screens cracked, the seams "grinning" (it's a shell-model iow you flip it open to use it). Since he needs a phone, I dug up drawers and found four (4) old mobile phones! All perfectly functional, just old. (Can't say how the battery lasts though.) Now he is using my old phone. I was planning to buy him a new phone for his birthday present (in august), hubby said yesterday not to buy, but we'll see, after his temper cools down. At least we make him wait for new one 'till august, should teach him to take care of his property...

[Eimi]

Wow, Paula, how old is your son now?

[emma]

They make phones in Finland - Nokia are based there. I'm guessing that makes them cheaper....

[Paula]

He is going to be 10 in august.

[Clancey]

Its none of my business, LOL, but does he really need a phone at that age?

Does anyone remember before cell phones? However did we manage!? LOL

that cracks me up so much.  We all have heart failure if we forget our cell phone at home or something...  (or at least i know I do...) but man there were days I didn't even go home during college and I didn't seem to need a phone... so much.... LOL

And somehow I made it through my teenage years without even knowing there were such things as cell phones.  We had "car phones" then.    That was 20 years ago.   But today, all the kids in my youth group (6th grade to 12th) have phones!  Its crazy.

[Paula]

Yes, he needs a phone. How else he could call mom or dad and let us know he's safely home from school? Or let us know he's with his friend next door.

[Chelle]

Ahhh.. just my observation but Scandinavian mobile culture is VERY different from what the rest of us might be used to. Think of a country where many people live out in the middle of nowhere or at least, are very apart from one another. Land lines are just not feasible. Enter cellular phones and towers. Enter the two foremost cellular phone manufacturers (Nokia and Eriksson).

Now, in most cases, parents will be gone at work or wherever when kids are coming home. I worked at a middle school. I met a *LOT* of latchkey kids. Oftentimes, they'd be out playing with their friends in the streets till 11PM. There was no crime, so what was there to fear? And their parents didn't care as long as they were home and went to school the next day.

Especially since the kids were carrying cellphones to check in every hour or so. And in most cases, a landline costs more than a mobile.

I know it almost drove me crazy when I had neither a landline or a mobile while in Sweden the first time. Thank God I had internet and Skype (used it for a landline).

So yeah to Paula, it's perfectly natural. Whereas here...yes I'd agree it would be ridiculous. I didn't have a cell till I was 18 years old and leaving home for college (since my college was 12 hrs away and I would be traveling alot).

All that said, kid does need to learn to take care of his stuff. Reminds me of my cousin's gf. She drops phones in the toilet, into coolers, and god knows where else. >.<

[Eimi]

oooo yeah, cell phones and toilets...  They do NOT mix well.  I've had a lot of friends here in Japan lose their phones that way.  Of course, the squat toilets make losing your phone easy.  Hunch down and if you're not careful, everything from your pockets just spills out :P  That's why I never take my cell or wallet into the bathroom!

I remember the first time I met a friend back in America who had a cell phone and NO landline.  I couldn't believe it.  I thought it was ridiculous!  I couldn't imagine not having a landline.  And then I moved here.  Now all I have is a cell phone, and no landline at all.  They're SO expensive here!  And then on top of that, you HAVE to have a cell phone in Japan.  The streets are so confusing, there are so many things that delay people... If you're trying to meet someone and one or the other of you has no phone, you are up a creek!

[Paula]

We don't have a landline, just mobiles. It cheaper and sms are kind useful too in side the family. Chelle, your account of Scandivian phone-culture is smack on target. Only old people like my granny (nearing 90) have landlines (mostly because the mobiles are too small for them).

[emma]

I know people here who don't have landlines, just mobiles.  I do have a land line, but that is so I can get broadband and I get free local calls in the evenings, I use my mobile more though.

[Eimi]

When I was growing up everyone had landlines of course, and in my state at least, all local telephone calls were one flat monthly fee.  I could call anyone in town and talk for as long as I wanted, and it didn't cost any more or less.  I think that's why teenagers would spend hours on the phone.  I know I literally spent hours on the phone a day, usually talking to my best friend Chris.  We'd just sit doing homework or watching tv or reading a book and chat, or say nothing but make little comments now and then.  We even played chess over the phone!  As long as you had call-waiting, you'd never miss a call coming in.

[Chelle]

Mmm we had landlines too. When I was 14, I got my own private line since I used a dialup modem with the new computer I got. Of course I used it for private phone calls too. LOVED it. Never tied up the main phoneline so I could talk as long as i wanted.