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Cell Phones~ Age You Got One


GingerRose

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142 members have voted

  1. 1. How old were you when you got your first cell/mobile phone?

    • 5-9
      7
    • 10-14
      78
    • 15-18
      39
    • 20-23
      10
    • 24-30
      1
    • 31+
      5
    • I have never had a cell/mobile phone...
      2

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Grumpy Alien

I was 10 but I accidentally voted 5-9 because I can’t do simple subtraction. I was the first in my grade to get one but I think it was a wise decision on my mom’s part.
 

Without going into too many details on my very broken home life with my extended family, having a phone allowed me a lot more freedom in some ways and in other ways, gave my grandmother and aunt more control over me. I could always call someone to ask if I could do something - which was very important if you have a strict upbringing. I got in trouble with my grandmother and aunt over a lot of stupid things like going barefoot in someone else’s backyard. I learned to call and ask about everything which was feeding into their game but it did mean I got in trouble less and felt less scared about everything I did. They also knew where I was 24/7 but again, I learned to call and give them a schedule of where I was going to be and they’d tell me when I had to be picked up. If I didn’t, they would find me and force me home and I wouldn’t be allowed out for a while. So while I was still being helicoptered, I had some semblance of control.


 

The main reason my mom gave me a phone was so I could call 911 or home if anything were to happen outside of the house. I lived in a tiny coastal suburban town in the US. It was 2002. At age 10, kids start wandering the neighborhoods. It’s just houses, a school, sports fields, and playgrounds/parks. There wasn’t much danger in us walking around town if we were never alone. If we had a phone, there wasn’t much need to worry.

 

It was also really handy as an anti-social kid.

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I started out on a monthly prepaid little brick phone with an antenna. My first phone looked very similar to this:

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nutterwithasolderingiron

14 and i got a nokia 3310....... and still have it. it's my backup phone. even after i played football with it as the ball, chucked it out the window a few times. the funny part was i dated a fin and they told me all the testing those phones went through. hell, if there is ever a winter war II: electric boogaloo, i'm sure the fins would just use 3310's as ammo. 

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Grey-Ace Ventura

I was 10 and it was a ZTE Score. My mom got it for me because we moved to the States from a place where BlackBerries were the thing.

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MetricalSky

18. Got a flip phone as a gift from my parents in 2004. I think I still have it somewhere...

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WobblyWallaby

I was 19 but that wasn't an option on there.

I like that I didn't get a cell until I was an adult even though I come from a generation where I was one of maybe three in my high school class without one.

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19 - the lost generation :lol:

 

Me, cell phones weren't even a thing until I was an adult and didn't become widely used until even later. And I was a late adopter, not being fond of phones in general. I still use it more as a camera, music-player, and occasional video-player, and some communications, but very little web-browsing or telephoning.

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GingerRose
9 hours ago, DarkGloomSquid said:

Umm not really sure, born 99 so sorta end of Millenial and beginning of Gen Z. Most kids had older siblings who had phones so they didnt get till like grade 6 but I was the older one and needed to be the one in contact with my mom. I only started to use one regular when I got my blackberry in sixth grade and BBM was still a thing.  

Ah ya 

Maybe it's just an area thing, nobody had cell phones when I was in younger grade school, everyone started getting them in 7th grade..well except me.

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Grumpy Alien
2 hours ago, Grey-Ace Ventura said:

I was 10 and it was a ZTE Score. My mom got it for me because we moved to the States from a place where BlackBerries were the thing.

... Canada? 

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Grumpy Alien
32 minutes ago, GingerRose said:

Ah ya 

Maybe it's just an area thing, nobody had cell phones when I was in younger grade school, everyone started getting them in 7th grade..well except me.

Could also be where you’re from and the circumstances of you and your peers at that time. I don’t know how old you are but you don’t look like you could be much older than me and I got my first one in 4th grade.

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GingerRose
14 minutes ago, Kimchi Peanut said:

Could also be where you’re from and the circumstances of you and your peers at that time. I don’t know how old you are but you don’t look like you could be much older than me and I got my first one in 4th grade.

Ya I am in my early 20s.

Ya IDK but no one had them that early when I was in 4th grade but that's interesting that it was different in other places.

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Grumpy Alien
19 minutes ago, GingerRose said:

Ya I am in my early 20s.

Ya IDK but no one had them that early when I was in 4th grade but that's interesting that it was different in other places.

I’m in my late 20s. Grew up in New Jersey. I was the first in my grade to get one but by the following year, a few others had them and then most of my peers had them by 6th grade. Definitely 90% of my classmates by 7th grade.

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18, which was also when I got my driver's license; my parents got me a cell phone then so that I could call a tow truck and what if necessary (which did become necessary a couple of times, since my first car was old and not in great repair). It was the most like the third from the left in that image, but black and a bit bulkier.

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Grey-Ace Ventura
1 hour ago, Kimchi Peanut said:

... Canada? 

No, Jamaica lol

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12. I was the only one in class to have one lol. It was a pink flip phone, I still have it somewhere.

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Grumpy Alien
13 minutes ago, Grey-Ace Ventura said:

No, Jamaica lol

🤔 I’m confused. 😂 What do you mean blackberries were a thing in Jamaica but not the US?

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Grey-Ace Ventura
13 minutes ago, Kimchi Peanut said:

🤔 I’m confused. 😂 What do you mean blackberries were a thing in Jamaica but not the US?

No I mean blackberries were like THE THING in Jamaica, they were the most advanced phones at the time while the US already had smartphones.

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I got my first cell phone at age 23 in 2003 because my mother got fed up with trying to contact me via long distance calls.

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Grumpy Alien
34 minutes ago, Grey-Ace Ventura said:

No I mean blackberries were like THE THING in Jamaica, they were the most advanced phones at the time while the US already had smartphones.

OHHHHH I totally misunderstood 😂

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Marimbasticks

End of 8th grade because my dad got a good deal, but I didn't really use it for about a year.

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Janus the Fox

About 16 years of age, roughly 2006 a hand-me-down rarely used.  It’s only when Mobiles become smart phones and learning in college becoming more aware of tech is perhaps why I like my mobile devices. :)

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GingerRose
23 hours ago, Exomancer said:

My nephew has had a smart phone for a few years now. He's 4.

Ah! Getting younger and younger!

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GingerRose
On 5/23/2020 at 1:08 AM, Exomancer said:

13th birthday if I remember right. About a year and half after that is when I began to actually use it. 

My parents kind of had to force me to get a cell phone. I was 17 when I finally agreed to having one and using it. 😄 

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Gucci_Grape

I was in 7th grade I think? It was a sliding phone. The ones that you turn sideways and slide up to use the keyboard. I also got my dad's old iPhone in my freshman year of high school for music, but the data was disabled on it, so I could only use it on WiFi, and I couldn't make calls or text with it. So it was basically just a very fancy iPod. I got my first actual iPhone (6s) in my sophomore year of high school. The only reason my parents gave me one was because I started doing after school activities every day and I needed a way to contact my parents in case something happened.

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Grumpy Alien
6 hours ago, Gucci_Grape said:

I was in 7th grade I think? It was a sliding phone. The ones that you turn sideways and slide up to use the keyboard. I also got my dad's old iPhone in my freshman year of high school for music, but the data was disabled on it, so I could only use it on WiFi, and I couldn't make calls or text with it. So it was basically just a very fancy iPod. I got my first actual iPhone (6s) in my sophomore year of high school. The only reason my parents gave me one was because I started doing after school activities every day and I needed a way to contact my parents in case something happened.

I was hooked on sliding phones when those came about. I was so upset when they stopped making them for higher functioning phones. I liked that they were easy to type on compared to the T9 and tiny touch screens (which you had to tap really hard) at the time. The only reason I switched to touch screen in about 2008? Maybe? because I couldn’t find any decent ones anymore. 😂 I loved those things. Wouldn’t go back to them now though.

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AmusedSkeptic

I got a flip phone for emergencies on my birthday in 6th grade. The phone kept malfunctioning so I got an iPhone in 7th.

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Flip phone in early eighth because my parents say no smartphones until high school.

 

It's the end of eighth grade now.

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50 rats in a trenchcoat

after years of begging i finally got a phone on my 13th birthday

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lelisabeth

I got my first phone in the 6th grade as an easter present, one of the prepaid flip phones. My parents were pretty upset about my unenthusiastic reaction about it, but I thought it was fake. I didn't get my first smartphone until after I graduated high school and now I don't know how I survived 💀

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  • 1 month later...

18, which is pretty late, but I'm happy I got to grow up without a phone.

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