I don’t really consider myself old — sure, I was born in the '90s and I’m not exactly a true millennial but I wouldn’t say I’m ready to graze the pastures just yet. Still, a part of me feels like an old woman every time I see some toddler tugging around a tablet they can barely grasp with their chubby little fingers or an eight-year-old scanning Facebook.

Cellphones had been around for a while before I received my first; of course, they were still relatively new and it wasn’t like today when people have given up keeping landlines because the cell phone is king. But by the time I reached middle school, I remember seeing girls in my class sashaying around with their hot pink cells–it’s funny to think how flip phones and giant keypads were the elite of cell phone fashions in that time.

My parents didn’t believe in spoiling young girls with phones though (they didn’t believe in spoiling young boys either but there were no young boys to worry about then) –- in fact, they were opposed to the idea of spoiling children with most newfangled forms of technology.

My first phone was –- I kid you not –- my birthday gift from my parents on my sweet 16. Yes, I did not have a cell phone until I was halfway through my teens, and even then my parents were cautious with how much data I was allowed, the sort of apps I could download, etc. Their overprotectiveness aside, if getting my cell so late taught me anything, it’s that life is possible for children without cellphones.

My eight-year-old brother came home from school one day, fixated on getting a cell phone. When we tried to figure out what freak had seized him all of a sudden, we learned that every other kid in his class had a cell phone — some even had two (I suppose the parents were determined that he should break one of them). And my parents said no, of course — not because they didn’t trust my brother or because cell phones are expensive but because what exactly does an eight-year-old need a cell phone for?

And then we have the nerve to complain about social media obsessions and cyberbullying and cellphone addictions and scream at kids when they spend family dinner time in a one-on-one relationship with their cell phones.

You could argue that they could play games but what in the world are laptops and tablets and the Internet and the numerous video game consoles that companies ‘upgrade’ each year supposed to be for? I hope their parents aren’t submitting to some whim of instant gratification, so a car is probably out of the question which makes a navigation system rather pointless.

You could also say they might want to talk to a friend and I’d reply that there likely isn’t a shortage of phones in the world to carry on the sort of conversation that an eight-year-old might need to have.

In truth, you could argue and argue and argue and maybe you believe seeing eight-year-olds walk around with flaunting a cellphone (or two) is the most normal and even desirable sight in the world. But I won’t mind being called old-school when I say that my brother will at least be waiting a few years before he gets his hands on a phone and I don’t think that decision could be improved.

Until then, I’m sure everything else our age of technology has blessed him with should be enough to keep him occupied and satisfied because when it comes down to it, to those basic economic principles we learn at that age — a cell phone is definitely a want, not a need.