J. Hall Resources

Hall, J. (2001, February 26). Wireless companies ringing up teen-agers. The Daily Oklahoman, p. 1B, 3B.

OVERVIEW

Cell phones ring through business meetings, on soccer fields, during busy commutes, and in the purses and pockets of teenagers. The teen market is a rich one, as "40 million U.S. preteens and teenagers…will spend $170 billion in 2001…on things such as clothes, music, movies, and computer games." Wireless phone companies are successfully calling in some of those dollars, too. An eager market, young people are spending between $40 and $80 each month to communicate with friends and—occasionally—family.

Teens are ideal candidates for cell phones. Notes Knox Bricken, analyst for Yankee Group, " ‘The younger generation is used to being mobile all the time, whereas adults are used to making a telephone call from a place. Younger people think about calling a person, not a place.’ " Cincinnati Bell Wireless finds the market loyal and generous as "teens with prepaid subscriptions spent more each month than other prepaid customers. And its cost to acquire and maintain each teen customer was less." An additional perk to wireless companies, teens typically use their phones during traditionally non-peak hours: after school and during weekends. Analysts explain that this adds "traffic to normally idle wireless networks." Finally—no surprise to researchers—teens spend a lot of time on their phones. Mercer Management Consulting, conducting a survey of 400 preteens and teens, found that "time on the telephone hits a peak of nearly 12 hours a week in the middle teen years."

While teens still comprise a small segment of the wireless market (25% of 10- to 19-year-olds own cell phones, as compared to 33% of the general population), they "offer wireless companies a chance to win customers who may stick around for decades." And as the teen population is forecasted to grow at double the rate of the overall population, telephone use among this age group is anticipated to "surge to 70 percent in 2005," and exceed the general market usage.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What is the usage of wireless phones among the young people you work with?
2. How much discretionary income do young people use? Where do they get their money? How else do they spend their money?
3. What are the benefits of teenage wireless phone use? What are the dangers?
4. What can teenagers be taught through the use of cell phones?

IMPLICATIONS

1. Teens enjoy independence. They want to feel older and more mature. Cell phones help them achieve those goals.
2. They want to be connected. Wireless phones make these connections easier. They can reach out to friends and family any time, any place. But phones cannot replicate face-to-face interaction.
3. With freedom comes responsibility. Young people need to discern the appropriate times to use cell phones, and also need to learn how much time they can reasonably use their phones.
4. This trend is in its earliest stages. Related issues will emerge. Youth workers need to be prepared to address the foreseen and unforeseen effects of teens increased cell phone use.