MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
BEHIND THE SCREEN
that quickly became her favorite
plaything. In second grade, she got
her first cell phone (“it could hold
two numbers, it was stupid,” she
says). Now, at 14, she’s the proud
owner of a white iPhone 4S, which
she takes with her to school, carries as she wanders around her
house, uses at the breakfast table,
and keeps beside her pillow when
she sleeps at night.
“I bring it everywhere. I have
to be holding it,” Casey says. “It’s
HUFFINGTON
07.14.13
like OCD — I have to have it with
me. And I check it a lot.”
Casey only parts with her phone
during the hours she’s at school,
when she leaves it in her locker.
The rest of the time, she and seven friends keep up a running conversation over text messages.
Not having an iPhone can be
social suicide, notes Casey. One
of her friends found herself effectively exiled from their circle
for six months because her parents dawdled in upgrading her to
an iPhone. Without it, she had no
access to the iMessage group chat,
Yahoo CEO
Marissa
Mayer speaks
after her
company
purchased
Tumblr, a
blogging
platform
that’s
exceedingly
popular with
teenagers,
in May.