THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 25, 1995 TAG: 9508250073
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Teenology
SOURCE: BY GEREMY BATES, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
IT'S SUMMERTIME and lots of teenagers have time to kill. When they are not out partying or just hanging out, it seems that they are on the phone.
Teens and telephones are inseparable, especially during summer when there is no homework to hang them up. Talk ranges from clothes to music to people liked or disliked.
Chara Lewis, a rising senior at I.C. Norcom High School, said she spends eight to nine hours on the phone each day. Most of her phone time is spent discussing plans for the weekend.
``The gossip . . . on the phone is more exciting than a soap opera,'' said Chara, 17.
But conversations aren't limited to spreading gossip. Some people use the phone to play games.
Most phone games involve the three-way function, which is a phone company service that allows the caller to talk to two people at once.
Mike Johnson, 16, a rising junior at Booker T. Washington High School, said he uses three-way to play games all the time. Mike said he first calls a friend and then calls a female and pretends to be someone else while the friend listens in.
``If there was no phone,'' Mike said, ``life would be boring.''
Another frequent three-way user is 15-year-old Tiffani Sykes, a rising junior at Western Branch High School. Tiffani said she sometimes talks with friends for four hours each day. The amount of time she spends on the phone has led to arguments with her parents, she said.
``I enjoy talking on the phone almost as much as I enjoy playing basketball,'' said Tiffani, who plays hoops for her high school team.
A survey of 25 teenagers in South Hampton Roads indicates that the average person spends 3.5 hours on the phone each day. The amount of time ranged from one hour to seven, the survey said.
Some people like 17-year-old Latoya Foster, a Salem High rising senior, spend most of their time talking to significant others. She spends five hours a day on the phone talking mostly about people and relationships.
``All my spare time is spent talking on the phone,'' Latoya said.
Some concerned parents like Brenda Foster, a mother of three, thinks her oldest daughter, Latoya, spends too much of her free time on the phone.
``If I don't set a time for her to get off the phone, she will stay on the phone all night,'' Brenda Foster said.
Kelly Williams of Norfolk, a mother of two children including one teen, said she has to make her son get off the phone so she can use it.
Williams' complaint is nothing new. Parents, it seems, have been dealing with their teenagers' phone usage for decades. The conversations may vary over the years but the problem may never be resolved. MEMO: Geremy Bates is a rising junior at Tallwood High School. He wrote this
story during the newspaper's Minority Journalism Workshop.
by CNB