According to a survey sponsored by Levi and conducted
by Insight Express, 42 percent of kids ages 13 to 17 said choosing the right
outfit for the first day of school is more stressful than homework, being called
on in class or participating in extra-curricular activities. A separate study
from ACCESSconcepts.com, a wireless, lifestyle and event marketing company,
found 59 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States have mobile phones.
You can bet many of the same kids who are worried about their wardrobe consider
their wireless phones part of the ensemble.
By the above criteria, my
14-year-old niece is typical. She is about to start her freshman year and has
mentioned twice to me clothing for the first day of school. One thing is for
sure, her phone will be in her backpack.
I remember distinctly the first days
of junior high. It was the early 80s and a critical time in my adolescence. All
of the cool kids came to school with two things that fall … a powder jacket
and a Sony walkman.
A powder jacket was a two-toned, lightweight, pullover,
ski jacket that cost about $50. There was a big pocket across the front that was
perfect for carrying your personal portable cassette/AM/FM device (Walkman)
available for about $100 in the early 80s. Understandably, my folks weren’t
handing over $150 just so I could “look” cool. At least I had
Levis.
But why was that so different from the jean jackets and transistor
radios of a few decades before during my parents’ adolescence? The first
transistor radios in the mid 1950s cost about $50.
It was and still is all
about the tunes and the look.
Today you can get a basic phone for about 50
bucks with a monthly service plan for less than $30. You can buy a portable
digital music player for about $250.
Combining the capabilities of both, as
Motorola and Apple have announced plans to do, is genius. Give the youth market
the two things most important to them in an integrated device and come away with
users for life. A few years ago there was a lot of talk about integrated
devices, but now we are seeing combinations that make real-world sense.
Still,
the more things change, the more they stay the same. The things that make young
people “cool” leave their elders scratching their heads. Now as the
mother of two young girls I drift further from cool and hip every day.
My
7-year-old told me at dinner the other night that my 14-year-old niece wanted to
get an earring in her belly button. My quick response was, “Why do you
think they call it an earring? … It is supposed to go in your ear.”
I
will put my foot down at body piercings, but she can have Levis and a phone.
