I got my first cell phone when I was 10 years old, just before I started 5th grade. My Dad surprised me by adding me to the family plan and gave me the new pink Razor flip phone from Verizon. I took that phone with me everywhere, even to the bathroom; “Just in case I get a call” would be the words I said to justify this action. I was 10 years old, no one was going to be calling me with anything that important. I used my phone for entertainment in many ways, even though I did not have any games or internet. I used to record my favorite songs from a speaker and save them as my ringtone.
I was one of the only kids in 5th grade with a cell phone. Children on my bus would want to play with it in the mornings and afternoons, and I recall loving the attention of being unique and loved any chance to show it off. My middle school had rules against phones in school: all phones had to be off once you entered the building, no excuses. This rule was not hard to abide when I first got my phone because my father was alway enforcing similar rules, but as I got older, around 13, I began to think I was too cool to follow them. As time went on, more people began to get cell phones, and texting became a cool style to communicate with your friends. More and more of my friends got phones, and we all thought we were cool enough not to get caught in school. Boy were we wrong. One day my phone vibrated right when my teacher walked by, instantly giving me away. I tried to act like it wasn’t me, but I knew everyone could see the fear on my face. I got two days of detention that week, and more punishments once my father found out. Getting caught was breaking a huge rule, which meant damaging the privilege that allowed me to have a phone in the first place. I remember being so embarrassed that I would take the battery out of my phone before school so I would never have to worry about that moment again. From that day forward, I never took it out unless necessary.
In high school, the rules were very different. Teachers would say they do not want texting or electronic devices in their class, but none of them would punish those who would use their devices anyways. There was no rule in the handbook that band electronics during class time as well, so many students would take advantage and use their phones to do whatever they wanted in class, even watch movies. The school tried to disrupt the cellular signal in some areas of the building, but only in departments, like science, to prevent signal interference in laboratories. Phones were out and on desks as though school was just another place to hang out. In advanced courses, students themselves would choose not to pay attention to what is on their screen so they could focus to the classroom instruction. Oddly enough, my school was known to have some of the highest test scores in Connecticut, so I never saw phones as a distraction, but due to the advancement in technology, I know high schools are today not the same.
Danielle McIntosh
