1GyAp2x

180 Heather A. Horstenrolling in family plans for their cell phones, which allow two or morephone subscribers to share a finite pool of minutes that are are billed to asingle person or address. Family plans usually include phones for three tofive family members and offer cheaper rates for calls within the networksand, in the United States, typically require a two-year commitment withcompanies such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and others. Many kidscomplained about their parents’ selection of phones or plans without thelatest or desired features. However, within the family plan model, parentseffectively acknowledge that at least some amount of time will be usedtalking to friends. While there are other negatives for kids, such as parents’having access to the times, dates, and numbers that kids call, family plansmake it easier and cheaper to keep in touch with family (and others onthe same network) and it also guarantees that their kids will be able to callshould they find themselves in difficulty.One interesting implication of the different plans is that kids on familyplans tend to have less awareness of how these plans work, or what a callor text message costs, unless their parents make them pay for certain features,such as SMS. In fact, many teens do not generally know what theirparents pay each month or what the different mobile-phone plans offeruntil they “go over.” Gabbie, a seventeen-year-old Chinese girl living in amiddle-class suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area, described her experienceof “going over” to C. J. Pascoe (Living Digital):Gabbie: I have, actually. On text messages. Because we don’t have thatplan. And then my mom is like, “Why are we over two dollars this month?”And I was like, “Because I was text messaging.”C.J.: But only like two dollars. I’ve heard stories of like eight hundred ornine hundred dollars.Gabbie: I think I’ve gone over fifty dollars once. And then that didn’t goover very well.C.J.: Did they make you pay for it?Gabbie: No. They just got mad for a couple of days. After that they werefine [breathy giggle].By contrast, many of the kids who lived in urban New York were awareof and adept with the various plans and possibilities of mobile phones.Dana, a Latina fourteen-year-old in Brooklyn, discussed with Christo Sims(Rural and Urban Youth) the way she tries to balance her mother’s selectionof a mobile-phone plan with her relationship with her boyfriend.