The New Status Symbol

Phones have always been a status symbol of sorts. When they were first invented in the 1870s, very few even existed, so naturally, anyone who owned a telephone was a person of status. We've all seen the old crank phones that didn't even have any buttons to push. You had to be important to have one of those. Later someone invented the rotary dial as technology started to replace the need for a person to connect your call. Then came the push-button phone. At first the status associated with the phone was limited to your home, but then came the 1980s. It was during this decade that phone technology really began to change and the ultimate status symbol started appearing on the back windows of cars. The infamous spiral antenna was a loud bumper sticker proclaiming to the world "This car has a phone inside it!"

A few years later, that coveted symbol of technological prowess became a sign that you were behind the times. As phones became smaller, they no longer needed cumbersome spiral antennas. By the late1990s if you still had to have a spiral antenna on your car you must not be important enough to have a phone that could fit in your pocket. Then came the Blackberry and then the iPhone and who knows what's next. 

Most kids these days are growing up with their parents' old phones as toys. My kids have had their share of retired cell phones to play with, but the problem with those is that they don't work. You can't talk to your friends or siblings on an old phone. If you really want to communicate, you need more reliable technology. That's why my kids have the coolest phone ever invented. 

It all started when my oldest daughter read about it in a book and an idea was born. She started with two cans and a string and ended with two cans and a string. Now the kids can actually talk to each other as they burry their faces in the cans and pull the string tight. The best part about it is when your four-year-old son, who always talks too loud, puts his face into the can and seals it against his cheeks before he talks. The result is that it actually muffles the sound down to a tolerable level. 

After watching my kids playing with their tin can phones, I had an idea. Since phones are status symbols and the best way to broadcast your status is on the back window of your car, why not come up with a little white window decal that shows two cans connected by a string? Only those with enough status to admit that their kids use such primitive means of communication could actually have one of the stickers. How's that for a new status symbol?