Mommy of Many Show #25: Kids and Texting
April 13, 2008
This week’s show is my take on the whole texting thing. I see where it comes in handy, but more and more it’s becoming the way that our kids are communicating with each other. I feel that kids who are younger than high-school age still need to build social and personal relationships before taking on the nuances of the language of texting. Being able to say things to people in the impersonal world of texting, where the tone and, often, meaning of your words can be misconstrued opens the door for kids to feel “safe” in saying things to each other that they wouldn’t normally say in person. I know that there are other arenas where this is also true, ie; email and IM, but it seems that texting is the preferred form of communication right now, so that’s what I chose to focus on.
As always, I welcome your comments. You can also email me at Jen@MommyofMany.com or use the “contact” form to the right.
Thank you for listening to the show~
5 comments
What a terrific podcast, Jen! I hadn’t really given much thought to what is lost in trasnlation online. Thanks so much for this – I can use this information to help my kids, but also even in my business work, remembering what importance the human voice plays in communication.
I agree with you that hearing one’s voice is important. Not only that, but simply learning how to relate to people and developing in the “art of conversation” is being lost these days due to an excess of the technologies of which you speak in this podcast. Throw in the “reality” TV shows, virtual reality video games, chat rooms and the like and a person could end up forgetting who he/ she really is- especially a teenager who hasn’t had the time & life experience to figure it out. I only have little guys as you know, but as a former teacher, I do not see the reason for cell phones in school. The school I taught at was a K-8 and kids had to leave the phones in the office in the AM and pick them up at the end of the day. I can see high schoolers having them maybe, but I don’t think they should be in any classroom.
We’ve been kind of burying our heads over this issue…our oldest HAD a cell phone for a while, but it wasn’t able to make the transition to another state, so we may have to get another one. I like the idea of having a family phone that goes with different children as the need arises.
I do agree on the texting thing…but can also apply to emails. It is SO hard to get things across like tone of voice/sarcasm, etc., via text, IM or email, and my chlidren don’t have the maturity to compensate for that.
Thanks for doing your podcast on this!
This was great! Since Sophia is still a toddler, I haven’t had to deal with this issue yet. But Doug and I have never been in to texting. Maybe we’re just old school, but I figure in the time it takes to text you could just call and leave a message. Or if you are somewhere that you can’t talk on the phone and it’s not an ememrgency, whatever it is that needs to be said can wait. This is just my opinion. I definitely agree with the fact that the language we speak is slowly deteriorating with all the IM, blog and text. I don’t know what the answer is, I know many believe these forms of communication are crucial and have become part of the norm in our culture. We need to find someway to ensure our children and future generations don’t lose the meaning and importance of hearing a human voice whether on the phone or face to face.
Hey Jen,
I Totally agree with everything you had to say in this show. Honestly, even as an adult I find that sometimes saying something through a text is easier than saying it in person. I think it is important for kids to have that social growth of communicating personally. Great Show! Thanks again for touching on a very Real topic. I LOVE YOU xoxoxo
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