Tweens, Teens, Texting, and Manners

I was talking to a friend today about the evolution of a carpool to a far-flung afterschool activity over the past few years. A few years ago, the kids would all talk to each other during the road trip. Now, they pile into the car, cell phones in hand, and a few of them spend the trip texting friends and not talking to the ones seated next to them. The car is quiet.

It's great that kids can keep in close touch with friends by text messaging with their mobile phones. But when it stops them from interacting with friends and peers who are sitting next to them, well, another kind of connection is lost.

Those little screens are fun and hard to ignore. Besides, so many adults around them are modeling similar behavior, working on PCs and checking and writing emails on the sidelines of sports events. What else are kids supposed to do? How will they know it's rude if it's accepted behavior among people of all ages?

The difference is, most of us adults grew up without portable, always-accessible communication technology. Somewhere inside, we know it's rude to ignore the people we're with to talk with people on the other end of a phone in public, in a restaurant, in a theater...the list goes on. When kids grow up playing handheld games in all of those places, then get their first phones and start texting friends wherever and whenever, any remaining boundaries are sure to disappear.

Am I alone in thinking something will be lost when this happens? As another friend tells her kids: Wherever you are, be there. A good lesson in our always-connected culture.