My Parents are Santa Claus
There are few things more terrifying for the modern teenager than the text message warning that “you have used 75% of your monthly data” or “you are being charged for an extra gigabyte.” However, this is a regular occurrence for those of us without the blessing of unlimited data, and it is sure to spark less-than-happy conversations with parental figures – at least, this has been the case for me.
In an effort to combat my data overuse, I went into my settings and attempted to eliminate some of the unnecessary data being used by my apps. After removing access to data for apps that I didn’t even know I owned, I made the decision to take data access away from the omniscient “Find My iPhone.” This was a mistake. Within a minute, I had a text from my mom telling me to turn it back on. Apparently, for future reference, parents get a notification when you turn that feature off.
Now, this is not the first time I have been surprised by the amount of tabs being kept on my phone by my parents. When I first got my driver’s license, I became the family grocery shopper. Although in reality there may be nothing glamorous about purchasing your family’s supply of milk and toilet paper for the week, it made me feel like a real, grown-up adult. However, as I prepared to drive home after a successful Ralph’s shopping adventure, a blaring alarm that I had never heard before came from my phone. Apparently, my phone was being tracked by my parents and someone’s finger must have accidentally tapped the “Play Sound” button.
After calling my dad to see what was going on, I was told that surely no one was tracking me, and it must have been an accident, as neither he nor my mom were technologically competent enough to be tracking my phone. However, for anyone familiar with the Find My iPhone app, there are at least three separate menus to navigate through in order to locate the button to play the alarm. Looks like for once it wasn’t the teenager getting caught in a lie.
Following a series of tiring efforts to get my parents to acknowledge that they were, in fact, tracking my phone, I gave up, and we all came to an unspoken understanding that I would never truly be doing anything like an actual, independent adult, because my parents are Santa Claus. They were always watching, just waiting to put me on the naughty list. They see me when I’m sleeping (not out of the house) and they know when I’m awake (out of the house, have my phone on, etc).
I understand that there are many valid reasons why a parent would want to have access to their child’s location. The world is a scary place, and comfort can come in knowing where your creation is at all times. My parents have pulled the safety argument, but time and time again they have also reminisced to me about “the good old days.” They would be out all day with their friends, and they had an agreement with their parents in which they were trusted to return home when the streetlights went on. For people who so valued their freedom as children, depriving me of mine just seems hypocritical and unfair. Technology now provides more avenues for communication, and parents can keep tabs on their children without exact GPS coordinates 24/7. If safety is a concern, a well-meaning text message or even a phone call would suffice.
This level of parental paranoia is toxic, and while it may be played off as caring, at its core, it is dangerous. It stops teenagers from having the joy of happy accidents or living in the moment. A constant explanation of every breath needs to be made in order to avoid the wrath of a lecture. Eventually, we become too tired of constantly defending every move we make, so we just stop making any moves that deviate from the norm.
The lives of both teenagers and their concerned parents would be greatly improved if the degree of supervision was lessened. Parents, you wouldn’t have to spend your valuable time watching what is almost certainly just your child stopping for a snack on their way home. And teenagers, you could breathe again knowing that Big Brother isn’t always watching. It’s a win-win. However, if you are caught abusing your parents’ trust, I give my blessing to reinstate the tracking device for as long as your parental-parole officer sees fit. Until then, unless your parent is, in fact, a parole officer, tracking the whereabouts of another human shouldn’t be on their to-do list. Parents should foster spontaneity and adventure, while trusting that they raised their children well enough to make the right calls in sticky situations.
