Prepaid Phones and Today's Teens

Telecommunication has been changed by the advent of the prepaid phone. Of all that have been affected by the change, teenagers have stood at the eye of the resulting storm. Being the demographic that adapts and embraces changes the quickest and most readily, teenagers have absorbed prepaid phones into their culture.

One of the reasons that Teens have readily accepted prepaid phones into their culture is the affordability of the phones. The value of the prepaid phone over traditional post-paid phones is that it allows the teenager to own a mobile phone through his or her own savings entirely. This plays on the teenage desire to break out from the protected environment that their parents provide them and prove to themselves that they can survive on their own. While traditional post-paid phone lines allowed teenagers to pay for the phone initially, most teens ended up having their parents pay for their monthly subscription fees.

When teens decide to finance their prepaid phones with their savings, they instinctively become more prudent with regard to mobile phone usage. Paying for their phone usage themselves makes them more aware of how much airtime they are using, and forces them to manage their savings better in order to accommodate this new part of their lives.

With increased accessibility to the mobile communication network, Teenagers now have greater means to keep in contact with their friends. Giving one's own phone number has taken on a new meaning, as one no longer shares a telephone line with the rest of the family. The Teen is given a greater level of privacy, being able to keep and communicate with his or her own social circle away from his or her parents' attention. Prepaid phones also give them a larger capacity for maintaining social circles and friendships. While this opens up teenagers to more social contact, allowing them to develop healthy social lives, it also has a flip side. Increased availability through the prepaid phone also makes the Teen more vulnerable to harassment, stalking etc.

Parents are able to enact controls on the prepaid phones, such as services that allow them to keep track of their teens' calls and whereabouts. However, such monitoring by the parents are often not welcome by Teens, who value their privacy from their parents.

Furthermore, prepaid phones may pose as a distraction to Teens from their studies. The compact devices allow Teens to text each other during lessons, which while innocent enough, may have other implications such as cheating during tests.

The prepaid phone has been integrated so wholly and fully into the Teenager's life, that it has become a central tool in everything that he or she does. One can only guess at how much more prepaid phone-dependent the Teenager will be in the future.