Cell Phones!!!!

Oldest must be the only 11yr old in the 70605 zip code that does not have a cell phone.....the other day I see a girl that she goes to school with..... an IPHONE...Seriously...an IPHONE. I have made it pretty clear how I feel about FACEBOOK...so this is how I feel about kids and cell phones. I think we are putting so much added pressure on our children....they have to keep up with a lunch bag, jacket, backpack, library books, school books, homework...so on and so on. Now we'll pile on the added pressure of keeping up with a $300 cell phone(not to mention the monthly service fee)...really? I am all about teaching my girls to be responsible....but that kind of responsibility is just a bit much.... Not to mention the texting the kids are doing....conversations can get lost in translation in texting....you can't hear a persons tone in a text...so they may be being a total smart ass but you think they are being mean...so then it spirals into this mean nasty text conversation for all to see...because now you can send it to whom ever you want to. It's no longer just a "He said, she said"....it's "Look what he said...she said"....(Yes, I totally speak from experience). Oldest has had a few bad experiences with the texting......she used to ask me for a cell phone every 3 1/2 minutes...but the word NO is really an awesomely powerful word and if said often enough....they do eventually hear it and stop asking. I have told Oldest...The day she gets a cell phone, will be the day I hand her keys to a car. Now when another one of her friend gets a phone she doesn't even care ......I have too many friends with children older than mine that have told me horror stories of texts that they have read, or the pictures that the kids are sending back and forth to one another and it HORRIFIES me...and I am not talking about the "sexting"...that is a whole other post.....

It seems as though I am the only one that feels this way....am I all alone? Should I cave to the pressures of Cell Phone Hell? I have heard every reason under the sun given to me...but I just can't justify it.