You Always Remember Your First...Phone

When I was growing up I wanted for nothing. I can’t remember ever not getting something I wanted after asking. If there was a gift-giving holiday coming up and I asked for a specific present my parents almost always made my current dreams come true. I wasn’t until I was around twelve that there was a specific something that I wanted that I had to wait for, to earn. I wanted my first cell phone more than anything I’d ever asked for before, and the waiting process, to this day, is still vivid. At the time it seemed prolonged and painful. Although now I realize that I wasn’t made to wait much longer than a few months, it seemed like I’d been begging for years before I finally got my wish.

The first time I asked for a cell phone, my mother looked at me like I was speaking Gibberish from a third head. She didn’t need to tell me no, her look had already given me my answer. However, I still received a slew of reasons why it was unnecessary along with all the reasons why I was too young and too irresponsible. Needless to say I was disappointed but I continued to beg for weeks. It may have been the “nag factor” that we learned about in the documentary on Consuming Kids that broke my parents down because I was undoubtedly relentless for weeks (Consuming Kids). Or it may have been the fact that they realized that this was not something I was going to give up on, either way they finally told me that I could get a cell phone when I turned thirteen Although I was thrilled to know that I was not going to be without a phone forever, the months leading up my birthday were agonizing.

I watched as each of my friends got new cell phones for either Easter or their birthdays. And I watched ad after ad on TV telling me just how many new cell phon...

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...she did at the time, I think she’s very glad to have the instant

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communication ability now that I am away at school. That first cell phone and every new upgrade since has become my best friend. I loved each of them pathetically and there are still qualities about each that I miss. But waiting for that first phone was an experience I’ll never forget, and one that will make me appreciate every new phone that will follow.

Work Cited

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. Dir. Adriana Barbaro and Jeremy Eearp.

Media Education Foundation, 2008. DVD.

Masden, Rachel. “Technology and the New ‘Me’ Generation.” The Wall Street Journal. 30 Dec.

2009. Web. 9 February 2011.

Pugh, Allison J. Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Berkley:

University of California Press, 2009.