cause to me it says “playah”…that and the cigs. Can’t touch dis, beeatch.

Note to my fellow chronological adults: don’t worry about the younger generation. They will be fine.
They are always the fastest group of people to absorb just about any thing, be it music, visual media, social upheaval, racial issues, technology, violence, drugs, religion, etc., etc., keeping the good, changing the wrong, modifying the extreme, and bringing whats left into the mainstream. It’s their brushstrokes on the big canvas.
By and large, they don’t turn out for the worst despite the seemingly overwhelming odds, and I know 18 year olds who can hold their own in any serious conversation on any topic and add fresh viewpoints that are, on occasion, stunningly valuable insights. Of course, I also know a few insufferable adults who should never say a word.
The stereotype of the gum smacking brat with a phone stuck to her ear is just another case of judging the book by the cover…sure, she exists on the surface but think back to your own youth and you might remember that nearly all of us put up some kind of front to cover our sensitivity and vulnerability, and to belong to some group (read: to have friends). And lots of us still do exactly that, right on into our senior years.
The gum smacker will likely graduate from college and live a productive life, pay taxes, donate to charity, and all that good stuff that our future stability depends on.
Technology isn’t going away and it doesn’t matter. Look how many young posters have stated here that they don’t use them, don’t feel the need to talk to anyone that much (like me, I’ve sworn them off for the same reason).
A good number of the younger kids I have spoken with carry cellphones that can only call numbers programmed by their parents, and they see this as a sort of discipline or training phase – rather than complain, they accept the limitation as appropriate for their particular age, assuming that they will “graduate” eventually to full access phones. Healthy and mature attitude.
As far as “tantamount to sacrificing an appendage” or “I’ll die without my phone” goes, kids have always used hyperbole when describing how they feel about things. It comes from an incompletely formed language framework and the strong emotions that characterize adolescence. Give them a break. I remember a certain late ’70’s Mustang “Boss 429” that I clearly stated I would kill for. Trust me, I wasn’t a murderous psychopath in the making, just an overexcited kid.