Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Surprise, Surprise: Adults Can't Deal With Their Kids Texting Habits

by Lee Bains on May 27, 2009 at 06:11 AM


In addition to death and taxes, life seems to hold at least one other certainty: The older generation will fret over the younger one's preferred means of entertainment. Over the centuries, parents have freaked out over scandalous stories, books, radio programming, TV, the Internet, and goodness knows what else. In keeping with that grand old tradition, the New York Times reported yesterday that many adults are perturbed by those dang kids and their dang texting.

Citing the opinions and research of parents and professors from the San Francisco Bay to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the article demonstrates that public opinion finds teenage texting guilty of causing anxiety, sleep loss, developmental problems and even physical harm (see repetitive stress, or strain, injury). We can hear it already: "Next up on the five o'clock news. Are text messages killing our children?"



Look, we give technology as much credit as the next blog, but let's be honest here; a new form of technological distraction isn't going to fundamentally change our children, for better or for worse. As with anything, the excessive use of text messaging can cause problems. But haven't we learned by now that excess in most any form is a symptom, rather than a cause, of some other affliction? If that kid weren't texting night and day, she'd surely be instant messaging. Or using Facebook. Or talking on the phone. Or passing notes in class. Or sending smoke signals.

To such an eye-rollingly predictable freak-out, we can only offer this eye-rollingly predictable proverb: kids will be kids. [From: New York Times Via: The Business Insider]

Tags: anxiety, health, parenting, rsi, sleep disorders, SleepDisorders, teens, texting, textmessaging, top

Comments

5

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular