Today, the AMA News and several other news sources reported on a study that reveals the hazards of text messaging in teenagers. The study revealed that teenagers who text a lot are subject to all sorts of psychological problems including; anxiety. sleep-disorders and a host of other psychological maladies. This report caused me a lot of concern for my own grandkids. I have chalked it up to just a phase in their life as they try to find themselves and seek acceptance among their peers. This is nothing new, in years past we had other things like talking on the phone and chat rooms on the computer. In the distant past they even used things like letters and the completely written word. Those old times were when we still had books with complete sentences and a time when people still enjoyed each others company by visiting on the porch.
The worst thing about text messaging, to me, is the rudeness displayed when the person seems to have total disregard for their surroundings and other people as they thumb around on the little keyboard. They are oblivious to those around them and to the important events occurring right before their eyes that are focused on a tiny screen. In a recent movie. Gran Torino, the character played by Clint Eastwood summed it up with the disgust he displayed as his granddaughter was texting at her grandmothers funeral. That movie scene said it all.
I suspect that text messaging is not a lot worse than blog writing. It’s an escape from the insane world in which we live. It’s a way to put down your thoughts and record your opinions for those interested enough to read them. Mostly, it’s just a way to vent and is better than bashing your head against the wall or walking around mad at the world all the time.
I might even try text messaging but I don’t have enough friends who want to communicate that way. I should be good at it since I’m all thumbs. For now, facebook is enough for me and the blog allows me to speak to a faceless world.
I don’t do any blog writing on the porch. That is a sacred place that is primarily reserved for the old fashion human face-to-face communication and also for just mediating and reading things called books.
posted by Dad at 8:57 AM
1 Comments:
I say a prayer of Thanksgiving almost daily that when I was a child and later as a teenager that we did not have cell phones. If most of the parents during those times had had knowledge of our whereabouts and what we were doing we would likely have been locked up never to see the light of day again.
From skinny dipping in the creek close to our home, playing on a rope swing at the Leon River, gassing rattlesnake dens, staging rodeos with any stray horses or calves we could find, BB gun fights, tree houses, etc. etc.
In teenage years I think of the drag races, drive-in movie adventures, cruising town just "hanging out" or driving to some far away land like Taylor, Waco or even occasionally Austin. With a homing device attached to our body 24 hours a day how could we have ever created the fun times in which we lived. I pity the young people of today. they will never experience life at its fullest as long as they are captive to a hand-held phone/email device/camera/jukebox.
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