The shifting balance of knowledge (type and amount) between parents and children an how it is shred between the two is ever changing.
I remember turning 18 and knowing absolutely everything, going out on my own and starting a family and coming to realize that my parents had been right, about virtually everything. The same phenomena played out with my kids and I am certain that they and my grandkids are dancing the same dance.
Do you have an interesting anecdote or meme that illustrates this phenomena to share?
USA TODAY columnist Steven Petrow offers advice about digital etiquette.
Q: I've become quite comfortable with texting, thanks to my 15-year-old daughter, and I now text her (and the rest of the world) regularly. She complains that my texts are too long and that I take too long to reply. Of course, I accuse her of practically ruining the English language with her use of text abbreviations ("u," "b4," "ur," "idk," and "k") and emojis. Then, of course, she doesn't end a text thread but just disappears. What do I do? Not LOL on SMS
A: I have three teen-age nieces, so I feel your pain. At least you're not asking me what to do about teens texting at a family gathering (who, when I called them on it, told me they were simply texting each other). That one is my problem, not yours.
My very short answer is this: Give in. You have other battles to fight, so there's no need to fall on your sword over this one. Texting etiquette is all about the back and forth, the volley, the to and fro. Truth is, texts are meant to be brief. SMS messages have a 160-character limit, which is just a bit longer than a tweet. That includes letters, numbers, special characters, and punctuation. So think short. Write a sentence, or if you can stand it, just a phrase or two, and hit send. Tap and type some more. And send. Soon enough, there will be enough messages on your screen that you hardly know which you're replying to.
But your question underscores a frequent theme of this column, which is the growing generation gap when it comes to digital etiquette. When I wrote about voicemail, for instance, boomers voiced outrage at GenXers and Millennials who have an aversion to voicemail messages (leaving them or listening to them). Teens and twenty-somethings the so-called digital natives were practically born with a device in their hands. Some parents of tweens and teens describe their gatherings now as throwbacks to the "parallel play" behavior of their toddler days, with four or five kids sitting quietly in one room, all staring at their phones and texting, but nobody talking. We may think this is the downfall of society well, almost but it's clear that they've developed new codes of behavior.
One mom I asked about this said, "I'm appalled at the grammar, too, but I try to focus on what's important, which is that my daughter is in touch with me at all. We have a couple of carved-in-stone rules, like no devices (including mine) at mealtimes, and that you have to say good-bye before you hang up on a call. But I wouldn't waste my energy on texting grammar even though I cannot believe that "K" or "KK" is easier to type than "OK."
Still, I think it's fair to ask your daughter for one small concession, which is to use the "TTYL" abbreviation, which stands for "talk to you later" or simply "BRB" (be right back) before she disappears. Or you can threaten to keep texting her "ILY" (I love you) until she replies.
Recently riding in a car next to my 4 year-old nephew he asks "Aunt Lynne, can I play a game on your phone?". I reply it doesn't have any games (I have an analog *Motorola razor!!). Of course he wants to know why not and can he see it. I whip out the phone, open and he sees the screen. Proceeds to swipe his finger over the screen, of course nothing happens. The look on his face was of total dismay!
I'm sure a corded phoneon the wall would garner the same response!
*Living in rural TN, no cell service. One of the holdouts that still have a home phone with an answering machine!
I turned in my cell phone when I retired and haven't gotten one in the last five years, I have a home phone and answering machine and people are also welcome to come by if the need to talk to me. It seems to be working.
That Grandpa and Grandma dot not text is a thing of amazementto the grandchildren.
The shifting balance of knowledge (type and amount) between parents and children an how it is shred between the two is ever changing.
I remember turning 18 and knowing absolutely everything, going out on my own and starting a family and coming to realize that my parents had been right, about virtually everything. The same phenomena played out with my kids and I am certain that they and my grandkids are dancing the same dance.
Do you have an interesting anecdote or meme that illustrates this phenomena to share?
I saw this in USA Today - seemed to fit here
Recently riding in a car next to my 4 year-old nephew he asks "Aunt Lynne, can I play a game on your phone?". I reply it doesn't have any games (I have an analog *Motorola razor!!). Of course he wants to know why not and can he see it. I whip out the phone, open and he sees the screen. Proceeds to swipe his finger over the screen, of course nothing happens. The look on his face was of total dismay!
I'm sure a corded phoneon the wall would garner the same response!
*Living in rural TN, no cell service. One of the holdouts that still have a home phone with an answering machine!
Lynne
I am right there with you
I turned in my cell phone when I retired and haven't gotten one in the last five years, I have a home phone and answering machine and people are also welcome to come by if the need to talk to me. It seems to be working.
That Grandpa and Grandma dot not text is a thing of amazementto the grandchildren.