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Hello? Whassup? Phones Change But Not Teenage Girls

The more things change...the more they stay the same. Phones today are pocket sized cameras with little ear plugs instead of the bulky, rotary dial, 'Ma Bell' issued phones that most baby boomers grew up with.

Teenagers who use the new text message, Internet ready, camera phones seem to be from a different planet than the world most parents remember.

But a recent study says that, despite what everyone may think, teenage girls today are very much like the bell-bottomed breed of the 60's – their parents' generation – in many of the most important ways.

A University of Alberta study published in the May issue of Journal of Youth Studies showed telephone ads to a group of teen girls aged 14 to 17. It came as no surprise that the girls were attracted to the cool and hip images of cellular phone advertisements targeted to modern teens. Then they were shown a series of classic advertisements published in issues of Seventeen magazine from 1960. The unexpected result? The ads from the 60's most reflected the teens experiences as phone users.

The old ads for Bell telephones were designed to show young ladies the uses of a telephone, including helping friends with homework and talking about boys.

Many of the teens interviewed identified with these ads and the importance of friendship and responsibility that they showed, said researcher Rachel Campbell, author of the study and a Ph.D. student in sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

In contrast, the freedom-filled world presented in many of today’s cellular phone advertisements was not a reality in the eyes of these young women. They viewed their opportunities to ‘go out’ as limited, particularly when compared to their male friends.

Campbell’s study also found that most of the girls she talked with were given mobile phones by their parents to keep them safe – a safety that the girls believed was a real concern. The young women recognized their parents’ worry and emphasized wanting to be good, responsible daughters.

Despite this, some of the girls admitted to occasionally wasting their parents’ minutes, “fibbing” about where they were, or refusing to answer the cell phone’s ring. Yet, Campbell said, “these actions never deviated far from what was expected by their parents."

These hip young ladies did carry their cell phone and called home as requested. They had few objections to using the phones to keep parents comfortable, but felt it was important to create a space for themselves. With the mobile telephone linking them to home, many even said they ‘felt safer’.

Parents take comfort. Cell phones may come in many shapes, colors and sizes now, but the teenage girls who use them are not that very different than the young women who were learning how to use telephones more than 40 years ago.

Source: Newswise

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