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While this is not an actual quote, I’m sure it’s a statement that countless parents would agree with, amazed by their children’s ability to spend hours on the phone, seemingly isolated from the outside world.
“Don’t you want to hang out with your friends?”
“Jeez mum, I am!”
According to a new report by Common Sense Media, a non-profit specializing in kids’ technology and media use, texting is now officially the favorite form of communication among teenagers in the United States. 35 percent of the 1,000+ 13- to 17-year-olds surveyed this year stated that texting was their favorite way of communicating with friends, surpassing in-person contact which 32 percent of respondents still prefer over virtual communication.
The percentage of teens choosing personal interaction with their friends over electronic ways of communicating dropped from 49 to 32 percent between 2012 and 2018, marking a trend that many parents view anxiously.
It is hard to deny how convenient and functional texting makes staying in touch with folks. A message can be sent that doesn’t need to interrupt someone (as a phone call does), the reply can happen at that person’s convenience, and a quick “conversation” can happen without the need to feel compelled to carry on a long discussion. But then I grew up in an era with one home phone, lots of face to face interaction, and so I actually possess these skills and enjoy exercising them with lots of folks in between the intermittant texting sessions. Teenagers today will likely NEVER acquire them thanks to the cell phone.