Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Generation TEXT (Blog Prompt #3)

I agree that the new forms of electronic media have dominated the way kids communicate and interact now.  What kid isn't texting, tweeting, and Facebooking right from the palm of their hands nowadays. I'm here to say, as a parent, to other parents...IT'S OK!  Yes there are predators out there, but they were there before. They just didn't appear after the advent of the Internet, they were out there lurking in their window-less conversion vans.  Parents shouldn't worry what their kids are doing online, everything they are doing is natural.  Yes, they are looking at porn.  Yes, they are using bad language with their friends.  Just like you did as a kid, but the only difference is the bad influences were harder to get into your parents house. I think the best thing a parent can do is to accept the fact that your child will run across things online that you don't want them to see, but...here's the kicker...sit down and explain to them why the behavior is wrong and what it actually represents.  It's all entertainment.  I know it might sound revolutionary, but actually talking with kids might deter some of the behavior.  Your son might skip past that porn site if it recalls memories of having "the talk" with his mother. 

The only drawback I can see from the electronic age's influence on today's youth is the fact that they now communicate within 160 characters or less.  You have endless room to write when composing an email, use full words.  Spell out "you" instead of "u."  Write "are" instead of "r" when you aren't texting.  My wife teaches 7th grade math and graded a paper that had "IDK" as one of the answers.  I can accept "i don't know" but when you are too lazy to even spell it out...c'mon!

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