Let’s talk about teens and texting… And in related news: I’m an Ambassador!
OK, you’ve heard of LG Mobile Phones, right?
Well, they launched this great program for those of us who live with text-messaging teens– they describe it as “designed to provide parents with with the know-how and the resources they need to promote responsible mobile phone usage among their text-savvy children.” Which is a fancy way of saying, “You parents need to get your head out of the sand and find out what your kids are doing!”
They did a lot of research on the subject and discovered all kinds of cell phone abuse going on out there by teenagers– scary things like ‘sexting’ (sending explicit photos or texts), harassment, gossip, bullying, and forwarding inappropriate images just to name a few. It’s enough to give a mother a migraine just thinking about it. Their research also showed that many parents are completely in the dark about a lot of this stuff. So they put together an advisory council of experts and started a campaign to educate parents and offer them some helpful strategies on how to deal with their teen’s texting behavior– which is actually a tremendously good idea.
They also selected some mommy/family blogger-types to participate in the program as “LG TextEd Ambassadors”– and I’m one of them!
(Feel free to refer to me as Madame Ambassador from now on. *practices Queen Elizabeth wave* I sincerely hope there is some kind of sash involved. Or perhaps a small tasteful tiara.)
Here’s the deal: If you have a teenager in your life who communicates by text messages (and trust me, they ALL do!), this is a great resource. Please go and check out their main page– the latest topic is called “Mobile Meanness” and some of my favorite bloggers have written posts that contain some important and eye-opening information in it. Feel free to join the discussion and add your comments. ( And yeah, I’ll admit it, I kinda want to show off what incredible readers I have!) I’ll be contributing a post in the next few weeks and will keep you guys in the loop when it’s coming up.
This is a campaign I truly believe in, and I’m excited to be part of it.
(Do you know any parents or teens that could use a little straight talk about texting?)
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Thankfully my son is only 5 and so we aren’t there yet. I have friends with teenagers and tweens who are clueless about what their kids are doing in social media. They don’t follow their kids on Twitter or friend them on Facebook. The parents keep up with texting but only if they go over their plan.
TexasEbeth– You know, I honestly don’t understand why some parents ‘aren’t allowed’ to friend their teens on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter! It would be a huge red flag to me if Madi tried to keep me from having access to those things. I don’t read her private emails or go into her phone and monitor her texts, but you know what? If I had reason to suspect that there was inappropriate or potentially dangerous behavior going on– I’d do it in a New York minute!
OK – i have skipped a blog, and will get back to it, but this one i had to jump on quick, cause my timeon the computer is running out..(I’m @ library). MY DAU TEXTS EVERYTHING!!! AND IT MAKES ME SOO MAD!!!! I want to talk to a real-live-breathing person when i talk to her! Texting waaay too much room open for attitudes, assumptions, etc….things we can hear in vocals that dont show up in written words – nuances, ya know what i mean! I have fussed, fussed, FUSSED…..refused her texts, only to break down and accept them cause that is how she doess it….which i have always thought showed cowardice 0 i mean, CANT YOU SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY TO A PERSON, INSTEAD OF HIDING BEHIND A TEXT WHERE NOONE CAN RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENT – ? I am glad to see this, Tori, will check it out better later2 thanks!
DELIVEREDJEPARKER63: Oh honey, I know how annoying it can get– Madi sometimes texts at the table during dinner, and Russ actually texts our pastor’s wife Jill DURING CHURCH to comment on what her husband Danny just finished saying from the pulpit!
I will admit that texting can come in really handy sometimes, especially when I’m at the grocery store and the girls can send me their list of demands, or I’m on my way to pick them up from school and they text me to remind me they are going home with a friend. We even text each other while we’re all in the house together– it’s quieter than yelling up the stairs!
Oh Tori,
I have been on twitter when you and Madi twitter across the room to decide what’s for dinner…(so funny) and I really get to read what you decided on.
DON’T STOP, we love it.
Phyllis
Phyllis–
Give me some credit here, girl– we don’t Twitter from across the room, I’m not THAT lazy!
We Twitter from allllllll the way upstairs.
(OK, I AM that lazy!)
Oh, I am so sorry, let me give credit where credit is due, you were upstairs twittering. I promise I will try real hard not to make that mistake again. Laughing and Smiling, you have a way of making me do that and I so enjoy it.
Phyllis S–
Wonder if texting affects one’s spelling much as shorthand did back in the 40’s?
For more than one reason I am in the dark when it comes to texting today, but if it had come into practice while my kids were growing up, you can bet I would have been right in the middle of it. I read more books on things my kids were interested in….things I never would have turned to on my own, and it gave us more things to talk about.
And if I were suspecious about something, I would not be above making an “inspection.” (I like that much better than snooping, for goodness sake.)
I was watching my TWO YEAR OLD grandson Monday when he got my cell phone off the table and was sitting on the floor punching buttons on it as fast as he could before I took it away from him! He looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I just did and said, “Awwww, Gamma! But I was texting!”
I just started texting about three weeks ago. I’m slow to do new things. My cellphone doesn’t have a keyboard, so it takes longer, but I don’t do that much texting. It does come in handy sometimes…..last week my granddaughter texted me from the bathroom, informing me that we were out of toilet paper in there!
Tori, you are right on top of things! That program to educate parents sounds like a great idea! And I hope you get your sash and tasteful tiara real soon, Madame Ambassador!
Does this mean you have diplomatic immunity and can say…..park in handicap parking spots whenever you feel like it?
Madame Ambassador *curtsy*
I text, I like to text. It is quick, easy and useful. However I can’t txt. This is a language I can not speak at all. I feel I might need to study it before my children reach ‘that’ age but everything in me wants to stay a million miles away from this alien, insult to the English language. Words need vowels, and I know I’m in a minority, but I’ll happily text a 15 letter word if it happens to suit what I am trying to say. I may be one of the younger commenters on here but I am so out of touch with some aspects of todays culture, and very happy that way.
I agree with you, rachelbaker! Texting is indeed ‘quick, easy and useful’ but in fact I use this form as if I were writing a ‘special’ letter.
During my training we had to write a French essay about texting. Well, of course it was about French kids using “texto”. But there is no difference in the way their language is distorted, their ability of communicating in real life worsens, their marks in school suffer due to a lack of concentration and due to really bad orthography…sometimes even health problems like a stiff neck or typist’s neuritis result from that habit.