Power Comes with Danger

Making the upgrade from an iPhone 6 Plus to 13 Max Pro felt like I went from a Corolla to a Tesla. I should have made the upgrade sooner. Then again, I hope to keep the 13 Max Pro for at least 5 years.

After my upgrade, I signed up for a brand new phone for our first born with Verizon’s promotion: a free iPhone 12 for a new line with unlimited plan. Since both my wife and I are already on the unlimited plan, we just needed to add another line for him.

I thought a a third line would be cheaper until the bill came a few weeks later. I received all sorts of charges and his line was higher than ours. We were on the G5 Start plan and the new line required the G5 More plan. I should have known that “More” meant more money and nothing is free in corporate America.

I made a mistake by not looking at the dollar amounts when I signed up for a new line, but the bigger mistake was giving my son a powerful tool. He could access anything at his fingertips and the whole world was in his pocket. It was like handing him drugs at thirteen. I wanted him to be more independent and reliable, but he was not ready yet. I realized that I was putting him in danger and I needed to put a stop to it.

I brought up my concerns with my wife and we asked him to let us return the phone since Verizon had a 30-day trial period. We wanted him to focus on his school work, spend more time outdoors, read paper books, and do things off the screen. He was sad to return the phone, but he understood that we were not punishing him. He knew we care deeply about his well being and we love him dearly.