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BlogHer and LG Text Ed
I have a friend that I have not spoken to for awhile.
I casually mentioned to my son that I needed to give her a call – to catch up.
“What do you do?”, he said, “Just call and, like, ask – what’s going on?”
He seemed perplexed. Clearly the art of phone conversation is a foreign concept to him.
Enter the texting age.
I am just as baffled by the meaningless texts that my kids send.
Don’t get me wrong – I like text messaging. It is definitely more time efficient than a phone call in getting a quick message across.
But I don’t text my friends a hundred times a day. I really only send a message if there is some vital piece of information that I must inform them about. I would much rather speak to someone in person if I generally want to shoot the breeze or find out about their day.
So I figured it was time to dig a little deeper and actually ask my kids about their texting habits.
Of my four children, two are in the 12 to 14 year age range – and actually have their own cell phones. I posed a variety of questions to both of them – and here are some of the insights that I gained (my questions are in bold, and my son’s answers are in regular type):
Are you familiar with cyberbullying?
Huh?
You know – when people text mean things to each other?
No one does that.
(I am very glad to hear this.)
What if someone did text you something mean?
I would delete it.
Would you tell anyone?
Probably not. (coming from the older one, who has a very thick skin – figuratively)
Maybe – depending on what it is. (younger one)
How many people do you text every day?
Not too many – just my closest friends. You just thing I text all the time, for some unknown reason.
What do you generally text about?
Sometimes just to say hi, other times to confirm homework assignments and stuff like that.
Do you text in school or class?
No. Our teachers don’t allow us to text in class. But we can text in free period or between class (at the high school)
And you can’t get cell coverage inside the middle school anyway.
Do you prefer to text or talk on the phone?
Text, of course. Because you can do that while you do something else – like watch TV or read a book.
Do you worry that your friends will share your text messages with other people?
No. Because I never really text anything bad or anything like that. Maybe girls are more likely to text about other people and stuff.
Now that you have this service – could you do without it?
Yeah, I could probably manage without it, but it would probably be hard since everybody else is texting.
So, there you have it – it’s a way of life. If you can think of any more questions, leave a comment and I will ask away.
Comments Please!!!
Have you had a conversation with your kids (or nephews/nieces, grandchildren) about texting, sexting and safety? BlogHer is matching LG’s donation of .50 to dosomething.org for every comment on this post, so please tell me about your conversation with your kids in the comments. Or if you haven’t had the conversation yet, what’s holding you back? Maybe another reader will have the perfect suggestion for how you can get your conversation going. It’s important for all our families, and dosomething.org will get a $1.00 for every comment, question or suggestion.
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