Brainwidth

Would you kindly allow me a “Kids these days” moment?

I had to go to the mall today. I dislike going to the mall, but when you need to buy something you kind of have to go to where they sell that thing.

So on my way out I passed a Sprint store, and seeing as how I loooooove gadgets, I thought I’d stop in and see the new HTC Hero. Browsing the smartphones were a mom and two kids, about 11 and about 9. The 11 year old was looking at the Hero, but mom was trying to push him to the less expensive Blackberry. The 9 year old said “Can I pleeeease get the iPhone?”, and the mom said yes, he could have an iPhone.

So my question is, when did it become commonplace/normal/socially acceptable for kids to have these crazy expensive, crazy powerful cell phones? When I was a kid I wasn’t even allowed to have expensive pants, because you could be damn sure I’d rip the knees out (and I was by no means a terribly active child…). And I can see an iPhone, because of the games, but what is a kid doing with a Blackberry or an Android phone? Why do they even want one?

</kids today></get off my lawn>