This last week my son had a dirt bike race in Washington and we traveled 12 hours to get to the event and camped for the week with friends. (see more about the trip at www.hcrproducts.com on my son’s racing blog)
While camping we got into a conversation about my daughter’s new cell phone. A friend of ours was giving me a hard time for making my daughter put an otter box cover on her iphone. He told me that it was borderline abuse to have my teenage daughter have such a large phone. Since my daughter and I just had a huge disagreement the day before over the use of the case, he was not helping me at all. Having purchased my iphone three years ago and dropped it many times, I am convinced that the otter box is necessary for my daughter so she won’t break her phone. Lets face it…..it’s not like I bought her a huge Motorola brick phone….it’s an iphone in a cute pink case. Is that so bad?
He kept insisting that I had “ruined the iphone” by putting such a large case on it and that her friends will make fun of her when she goes back to school. He thought I should just wrap the phone in bubble wrap to make sure it stays safe. Of course my daughter was thrilled that he would maybe talk me out of making her use the phone case, but no such luck. I am thinking when she can afford to replace it, then she can take care of it as she wishes.
I started thinking about all the different phones I have had over the years and how far our cell phone technology has come. Remember Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street using his Motorola DynaTAC. Since 1983 many different phone styles have come out and new functions were continually being added…what will they think of next?
The original Motorola cell phone was a little to big to fit into a pocket and over the years the sizes have gotten smaller and smaller. The technology and ability of the phones has also changed over the years. The phones began to flip close and slide open. You were able to not only call someone, but send them a message via text. The screen went from black and white to full color and touch screens. You could use your phone to take a picture or to surf the web. You could listen to music while checking your email or talk on the phone while you watch a movie. Instead of calling someone, now you can see them with the video phones.
FUN FACTS
200,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo (two hundred trillion) text messages are received in America every day……that is more than an entire years worth of regular mail received in America.
The average teen sends 3339 text messages each month
42% of teens can text message blindfolded
Texting is the #2 use of cellphones….#1 is checking the time
In 2010 Americans spent $42.8 million on cell phones
In 2009 300 million mobile apps were downloaded…In 2010 5 billion mobile apps were downloaded.
There is more than 3.3 billion active mobile phones in the world. (equal to half of the entire world population)
People throw away more than 125 million cell phones each year.
Two thirds of mobile phone users use the backlight of their phone as a flash light.
AND DON’T FORGET TO GET A CASE FOR YOUR IPHONE BEFORE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU….
COUNT ON CROSS 