Every month, Spencer Rogers follows the same ritual- he opens his mail to find his cell phone bill.
For two years, the moment has repeated itself, but Rogers has no complaints.“I knew I would have to pay for my cell phone when I got it,” Rogers said. “As soon as I had a job and found a free phone I got my first phone.”
A recent Highlander survey of 175 students shows 86% of Seaholm students do not pay for their own phone service.
However, just because their parents pay for their phone doesn’t mean everyone is happy with the phone they currently have.
“I’m very unhappy with my phone and how loud the keys are when I text,” senior Annie Pidgeon, who has a LG on Verizon, said. “I really hope that I get a new one soon, but I doubt it.”
The most popular service for a student to have was Verizon (41%), followed by AT&T (33%). Sprint (7%) and T-Mobile (6%) finished third and fourth. There were a few other rare providers that students had such as Boost Mobile and Metro PCS. These two services were popular for the students who paid for their own service.
Senior Drew Schoeppe enjoys not paying the bill.
“I love not having to pay for my own phone,” Schoeppe said. “If I had to pay for my own service, I would probably go out and get my own though.”
The most popular phone to come up in the survey was the BlackBerry (23%), followed by the iPhone (21%). The close third was the brand of Samsung (14%), but many didn’t know their exact model.
Some students are more pleased though with their phones than others.
“I used to have really bad phones when I was younger,” senior Maryann Laboe said, who currently has a Droid from Verizon.
Laboe had trouble with forgetting her phone in her pocket as the pants headed for the washer. Her parents helped her pay her way through the bill from all the new phones.
“I went through seven phones from water damage.” Laboe said. “Now I have the Droid X and I am very happy with it. It doesn’t fit in all my pockets, so I don’t wash it.”
The halls of Seaholm seem to be ruled by BlackBerrys and iPhones, but that is not necessarily the case. The product name was not as important to the students of Seaholm. Many did not know the name of their phone or even their carrier.
“After getting my first free phone, I just waited until my plan let me upgrade to a different phone for free,” Rogers said. “I upgrade phones when a nicer free phone comes out instead of buying a new one.”
Most students who currently have a parentpaid- for phone still risk confiscation.
“My parents threaten to take my phone away to make sure I behave,” sophomore Sam Wilson said. “It keeps me on the right track.”
The help of parents paying for phone turns out to be very useful because of the current prices of cell phone plans. Prices range from Verizon’s basic $59.99 plan to Sprint’s $69.99 everything plan. An iPhone plan can run at $70 plus a month for an individual plan. The plans students have come with texting and this helps to prevent an overwhelming bill at the end of the month.
That’s most likely a budget necessity. According to the Pew Research Center’s April, 2010 “Millennials” report, 54 percent of all teenagers text message their friends every day. The number of face to face talking is only at 33 percent and calls from a cell phone are 38 percent.
The Wilberding family has six kids, four currently at Seaholm. Their parents, Nan and Jim, feel that their kids need a cell phone.
“It was necessary to give all our kids a cell phone,” Jim Wilberding said. “It is much easier to keep track of all of them and get into contact with them. It is expensive, but we need it.”
“We’re a busy family and we need to keep in touch,” Lenny Strohm, mother of freshman Alex and junior Vicky, said.
Other parents feel the same way about the topic of their kids having a cell phone and the safety of their family.
“We got our kids cell phones so they could contact us when they were not at home,” Kevan and Barbra Kreitman, parents of juniors Josh and Seth, said. “We want to make sure they are safe.”
Wilson’s feelings towards the responsibility of parents to keep their student on track despite having a cell phone are essential.
“With the influx of advancing technology in today’s medial environment, the line between privilege and responsibility is quite thin,” Wilson said. “Especially with kids at the high school age, making decisions that will affect your future in a positive way are vital, and parents need to intervene to make sure that this is sustained.”
