Many Highly Educated Parents Refuse to Buy Their Teens Expensive Phones

No wonder that almost every teen we see looks glued on his/her smartphone, since a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that 73 percent of U.S. teens own at least one such device.

Furthermore, 88 percent of U.S. teens with ages ranging from 13 to 17 have access to a mobile phone, and 15 percent use a basic cellphone. The Pew study revealed that only 12 percent didn’t have a cellphone.

Amanda Lenhart from the Pew Research Center said that social media and moblie phones played a huge role in teens’ lives. The study, which involved more than 1,000 American teens, also found that 92 percent access the Internet on a daily basis, while 24 percent of them reported that they were connected “almost constantly.”

Lenhart that this kids feel that they are nearly constantly on-line because their mobile device buzzes, rings, and play music videos more than 15 hours a day.

Parents complain that mobile phones disconnect their kids from real life. A mom from Novato, Calif. recalls that one day she had three quiet teenage girls in the back seat of her car that weren’t talking to one another because they were too busy texting on their phones.

Twelve percent of the teens involved in the study reported that they go on-line only once a day, while 6 percent said that they were checking the Internet weekly.

But as constant on-line connectivity seems to estrange teens from their family members, the Internet allows their parents to keep an eye on them. Parents said that they were happy to learn more about their kids by checking their on-line posts.

Many parents watch the posts or tweets of their teens on a daily basis and claim that their parents didn’t know so much about them at that age as they know about their teens now.

The report also showed that parents know what is trending on the Internet from their teens and their teens’ friends. Additionally, researchers found that Facebook is a baby boomers’favorite, while people under 20 prefer Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.

Pew researchers found that one-third of teens do not have access to smartphones, while 30 percent have a basic mobile phone that lacks Internet access. This latter group is usually from lower-income families, but researchers were surprised to learn that many teens from parents with a college degree own only basic mobile phones regardless of their family income.

“We would expect to see fewer teens with highly educated parents with just a basic phone, but we don’t. It does suggest a choice rather than economics at play for that group,”

explained Lenhart.

But most of these teens have a computer at home, so their parents might have thought that a smartphone is a lifestyle choice, rather than a real need.

Other parents refuse to invest in expensive phones as their kids can easily forget them at school. So, budget flip phones are the choice of many of these parents. Parents also fear that phones could be easily stolen from their teens so many advise them not to take the devices out of their pockets on a bus. Moreover, cheaper phones are less appealing to thieves.

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