Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

In my family, technology marks the passage of time like rings in an ancient Redwood.

First came the beeper.

In the late 1990s, when my oldest children, now in their late 30s, turned 16, they each received a beeper.

That way, when they were out and about with friends, I could reach them, or, at least, send them a message to call me when they found a pay phone.

(We take a five-minute reading break to allow those readers under the age of 25 to Google “beeper” and “pay phone.”)

When my middle kids were 16, they got flip phones. My daughter still hasn’t forgiven me for the fact that her little brother got his when he was 15½ because it was Christmas and there was a sale. A teenager scorned has the longest memory of all.

My two youngest children, 12 and 13, have had smartphones for several years.

It’s a curse and a blessing.

Long trips in the car to see family are no longer punctuated by sibling arguments, because both children are buried in their phone screens for hours at a time. This is, mostly, a good thing for my sanity.