I was 11 years old when my parents gave me my first cell phone--a classic Nokia 3120—this guy right here.

Impressive, right? It may have been a near-literal brick in my pocket compared to what we have today, with only calling and limited texting capabilities, but it had a battery life of 17 days. I actually remember misplacing the charger on the simple basis that I only had to use it two or three times a month. It may have been basic, but it was given to me for a basic purpose, which it served very well—as a means of communication during my family’s 2006 cross-country summer road trip. We would be thousands of miles away from home in states we’d never visited before, and my parents saw it as necessary for me to have mobile communication available, should I need it. Thank God that no emergency ever arose where I had to use it after getting lost or separated, but that base had been covered. However, before I was given this device, my parents made it very clear to me that this was an expensive tool to be used wisely and properly, not a toy. I didn’t get a cell phone because I deserved it or had it coming to me—I was granted it for a reason. I was being trusted with the responsibility of it for a reason.

As I got older and the cell phones I was given slowly became more advanced, leading up to when I got my first smartphone (an iPhone 4s) at the age of 17, I did my best to remember that basic truth that my parents first told me when I was 11. Now, this isn’t to say that I was an immaculate saint of a child who did no wrong with his phone. In that span of time, I dealt my fair share of damage to whatever phone I owned at the current moment—like dropping it in the pool or leaving it in the bathroom of a roadside gas station on a road trip. I was lucky enough to get it back 5 minutes later after circling back, but man, did I pay hell for that lapse in judgment. However, I never saw my phone as a piece of personal entitlement. It was always a varying form of a tool, in one way or another.

I state all this as a well-meant reminder that as we raise a new generation in the midst of an incredible period of advancement, we should remember to instill an appreciation for how far we have come as a technological society in the youth who have been entrusted to our care. It’s our duty to teach them and to remind ourselves of the amazing power and responsibility (here’s to you, Uncle Ben) of carrying these remarkable 5”x2” rectangles of glass and metal in our pockets. No matter how advanced our personal devices may become, we can never forget that they are tools to be used with purpose and propriety.