Technology Turns Teens Into Total Phone Freaks

Monique Polizzi, 16, talks to girlfriends on a private telephone line. When she’s in a hurry, she pushes a button for speed dialing; when she is getting dressed, she uses the speaker phone.

But Polizzi’s mother drew the line at call waiting.

“She didn’t want me to get it because she was afraid I’d be on the phone constantly. So I just called the phone company myself and got it.”

Polizzi, a junior at Chatsworth High School, was eventually caught using the forbidden service. But although she said her mother wanted her to pick up the tab for speed dialing, “I never ended up paying for it.”

“Now I’m constantly on the phone,” Polizzi admitted. But “I’ve learned to talk and do homework at the same time.”

Telephone Hogs

Teen-agers are notorious telephone hogs, and with today’s technology--separate phone lines, call waiting, call forwarding, speed dialing, three-way calling, speaker phones, cordless phones, car phones and, of course, answering machines--they never have to miss a word. Even the parents who pay--or at least approve of--all this technology seem to feel that hours of telephone time are an inevitable part of the growing-up process.

“Sometimes I get really frustrated,” said Jeri Shipp, the mother of Stephanie Shipp, a 17-year-old senior at North Hollywood High. “I’d say, ‘Can you get off the phone so we can eat dinner?’ I’d just put everything on a plate and leave it there, and when I’d come back half an hour later, it’d be untouched. She’d still be on the phone. It’s frustrating, but I remember what it was like. I did the same thing, so it’s hard to get mad.”

Burbank psychologist Mark Imhoff says teen-agers talk on the phone all the time “because of their changing focus of their libidos from the family to the peer group. The family isn’t as psychologically significant as the peer group now is. They’re trying to find out who they are, what their identity is, where they fit into the peer group.

“The kids who don’t go through this normal pathology of talking on the phone a lot are the ones in the high-risk groups,” Imhoff said. “They’re not going through what they need to go through as teen-agers, the whole identity issue. Those are the teen-agers we kind of raise our eyebrows about.”

‘6 People on the Phone’

Imhoff probably wouldn’t raise his eyebrows over 17-year-old Jenny Carpenter, a senior at Chatsworth High School. Carpenter has her own line, call waiting, three-way calling, speed dialing, a speaker phone and a cordless phone. “When I’m on the phone with a friend, we can talk to another friend. But lots of my friends have the triple line too, so, at times, you can have up to six people on the phone.”

In addition to the many phone services that are available, retailers report that teen-agers are concerned about style--and cordless and transparent, neon-lined phones are the big winners.

“They love the cordless phone,” said George Iglesias, manager of Future Tronics in Northridge, where cordless phones sell for between $199.95 and $239.95. “The cordless phone looks like a cellular phone. It always stands up, has a rubber antenna. Teen-agers like that high-tech ‘space’ look.”

The transparent, neon phone is less expensive at $49, and Iglesias said he sells about 25% of his stock to teen-agers. “Teen-agers say that phone is rad,” he said. “Boyfriends and girlfriends buy them for each other.” And both phones are considered status symbols. “You see the junior high kids walking around with pride, saying, ‘Oh, man, I’m going to get that phone.’ ”

45 Cents Per Minute

The telephone obsession extends to the car, where expenses mount up quickly. Circuit City, for example, charges $400 on average to install a car phone, after which L.A. Cellular will bill customers $45 a month plus 45 cents per minute.

Shana Dishell, a 17-year-old senior at the private Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, has had a car phone since her 16th birthday. “I’m only supposed to use it for emergencies,” Dishell said. “Like to call my mother if I’m driving to a friend’s house, or to call the barn where I’m going to be horseback riding. But,” she giggled, “I also use it to call friends.”

“The car phone was for our peace of mind,” said her mother, Marilyn. “With her driving, and this crazy world today and the shootings on the freeway, I was very nervous. I wanted her to be able to dial 911.”

Luka Pecel of Studio City, another 17-year-old senior at Buckley School, said there’s a car phone in his future. “My mom wants me to get it because she wants to keep track of where I am.”

Stephanie Shipp thinks that her parents will get her a car phone when she goes to college next year. “If I go to USC, they might want me to have a car phone to see if I’m OK, or to say, ‘Can you pick up the milk on the way over?’ ” she said.

An employee at Circuit City in Woodland Hills confirmed that parental concern is the main reason teen-age drivers acquire car phones. In a typical month, he will sell 23 phones, and about one-third are purchased for teen-agers. “Typically, it’s middle-class parents coming in and getting the car phone for their kid’s safety. They usually buy a simple, bottom-of-the-line car phone for birthday or graduation or whatever.”

Since almost all of the students interviewed have their own private phone lines, what was it like when their families had to share one line?

“In our house, we have one upstairs bedroom,” said 15-year-old Kristen Strong, a 10th-grader at Chatsworth High. “I talk on the phone all the time. My parents could never get any calls. My brother couldn’t either.

“My mom didn’t want me to have my own line,” said Strong, who indeed has her own line, call waiting and three-way calling. “She just thought I shouldn’t be talking on the phone that much anyway. She objected to the whole thing. So my dad pays for it. I’ve had it since the seventh grade. I used to get in trouble a lot for it--I’d say, ‘OK, I’m off the phone,’ then I’d stay on the phone, but whisper so my mom couldn’t hear me.”

Missy Pecel, Luka’s 14-year-old sister--and an eighth grader at Buckley School--talks on the phone for three hours a night. She doesn’t have her own line or any of its frills--yet. “In a few months, I’m going to get one,” she said. “Luka got his first, I guess, because he’s older.”

Missy remembers the fights that used to break out when she and her brother had to share the same line. “He’d always want to talk to girls, and I’d want to talk to my friends,” she said. “He’d get mad when I’d pick up the phone and listen, but I’m interested in his conversations. I like to hear what he says to girls and stuff, to see where he’s ranked in his grade, how popular he is.”

Now that Luka has his own private line, Missy’s solved the dilemma of not being able to eavesdrop. “I just sit outside his door and listen,” she said.

Patricia Polizzi decided to get her daughter her own line because “Monique has abundant energy. With her on the phone in her room, she keeps it centralized--the whole house isn’t 16.”

“I really think it’s a waste of her time,” she added. “But I’d rather she do that than watch TV. It’s the lesser of the two evils. At least I know where she is when she’s on the phone. She’s in my home, rather than someplace else.”

Jeri Shipp says Stephanie has had her own telephone since she was 12 years old. “I couldn’t stand sharing it with her. Two females in one house with one phone doesn’t work. We were always fighting over it. I do mind paying her bill (about $40 a month) but she’s real good about it. When she made some new friends in different areas, it went sky high. I tell her to watch it, but then she’ll go use my phone.”

Shana Dishell, 17 on phone in her BMW as friend, Eden Krell, listens