How this world is changing

I got the Target wishlist book in the mail today. For all of you who do not know what this is, it is a large toybook for ages infant up to young teens.
I gaze through the book since i do have grandkids and the holidays are coming up, especially mine starting thanksgiving which is strange enough, i get to the middle and i start to smirk, they are showing Cell phones!!! And the models holding it up to their ear are kids that look 10+
Boy was i amazed,, i have seen xbox games other electronic games and computers for kids but never cell phones. In my lifetime this is the first time i have ever seen cell phones advertised in a children's toy magazine. Shows you how the times are changing.

Here is a great pic i found , it fits.

All my nephews, nieces and kids of my cousins back home in my native Finland have cell phones. For me it's a positive thing, they can be in touch with the uncle abroad easier, when they want to. Luckily it's quite often.

In my family there seems to be a consensus however that kids under "Facebook" age (official although badly controlled age limit for FB is 13) have normal basic mobile phones which only allow calling and text messages, first after they are 13 to 15 do they get smartphones.

This has of course something to do with the communications infrastructure in Scandinavia in general; not a single of my family members back there have for instance a fixed line phone anymore as they are considered useless. The number of mobile phones for instance in Finland per capita is almost 3 (almost three times more mobile phones than inhabitants) and domestic calls are very, very cheap. A typical mobile subscription in Finland at the moment costs between €10 and €20 per month, including 1,000 minutes of domestic calls and 1,000 text messages, thereafter 9 Euro cents per minute or text message, one cent per minute to (remaining ) fixed line numbers and to same operator's mobile numbers.

I have talked about this with my family and friends a lot, all of us find it very positive that a 7 year old kid can for instance contact parents if something happens on the way from the school or wherever and vice versa, parents can call the kids when they are late or something has happened at home. Also, as all operators offer some kind of locating service, parents can easily check where the kids are.

It is true the mobile revolution has happened but at least in my opinion it is only a positive thing. I really like the kids of my siblings to call the uncle, if I now found out one of them didn't have a mobile phone I would send one latest for Christmas!

Kari