NEW YORK - When our family got a new cellphone plan, our 17-year-old had one priority: a smart phone with access to the web.
Being a pair of old fogies, my husband and I immediately said no.
"Too much money!" I said. "Why does a teenager need a smart phone anyway? Go play ball in the street like you did when you were nine!"
But like any teenager on a mission, he eventually wore us down. He offered to pay for the Internet access for a year, in advance, with money he earned at an after-school job. He argued that, among other things, he would use the phone for school.
School work? On a phone? We got a good laugh out of that one. Until the night he was working on a history paper and needed to know the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I said I thought it was 1962, but told him he'd better look it up to be sure.
"Look it up" on a smart phone works like this: He put the phone in front of his face, said "1962" out loud, and a list of important events from 1962 appeared on the screen, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, compliments of voice-activated Google search.
My reaction was something like what I imagine Alexander Graham Bell's to have been when he successfully made the first phone call.
I then started to notice that whenever we were away from home, he was indeed using the phone not just to connect with friends, but also to deal with emails from teachers, to communicate with other kids about group projects and after-school activities, and because he's a senior, even to respond to messages from colleges looking for missing test scores and other information.
And while I almost hate to admit it, I've gradually come to depend on him when we're out and about to keep me connected, too. One evening we were heading to a star-gazing program when fog rolled in. I didn't have the number for the program, but he found it online and called to confirm that it was going ahead despite the weather.
He also uses the phone to get directions, figure out tips, translate foreign words and periodically announce the latest news roundup. On a family vacation last week during the winter break from school, he provided a virtual headline service, checking his phone every few minutes and relaying the news to anyone within earshot.
"The Taliban's second-in-command has been arrested. Plane hit a building in Austin. Tiger apologized!"
Some adults may question not only why a teenager needs a smart phone, but why kids need cellphones at all. But Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist at the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, says 73 per cent of kids ages 12-17 have cellphones. Among kids 15 and older, cellphones are owned by 80 per cent or more.
Of course, web access by phone is not as widespread -- yet. Among teens who have a cellphone, 27 per cent of them use it to go online, Lenhart said. While that's a lower number than those who use a computer to go online, it's pretty close to the per cent of those 18 and older who go online using cellphones -- 35 per cent.
Lenhart said information gleaned from teen focus groups suggests that many kids refrain from accessing the web by phone "because it costs too much. They can't afford it or their families can't afford it, so it's something they studiously avoid." (And although I caved to my teen's request, I still salute those parents who say no way.)
The Pew research, also based on a telephone survey of 800 teens and 800 of their parents or guardians, found that 66 per cent of teens text.
That figure will come as no surprise to anyone who spends time around teenagers. On our recent vacation, my son was texting and updating his Facebook status from the beach, from a hiking trail, from the car, restaurants and stores.
I have to say, in some ways, I welcomed it. It was better to have him happily staying in touch with his friends back home than to have him complaining about being away from his buds, stuck in a hotel with his parents.
Besides, his ready access to Facebook afforded me one crucial perk: He could update my status, too.
