Knowing he was sick and might be sleeping, I turned the door knob to Danny’s room slowly and opened the door a crack to make sure he was OK. He was curled up with his back toward me. I could see his eyes slightly open.
“Dan, are you OK?” I asked.
He doesn’t have the flu but has been battling a sore throat, headache and fatigue on and off for about two weeks. This is the second time he’s missed school.
“My throat is still really sore,” he said, lifting the covers enough to reveal that his fingers were busy texting.
Someone my age or older might think it strange for a sick child to be texting in bed. I didn’t think anything of it. Danny texts constantly, even while he plays pick-up basketball.
He got a new phone recently because his other one broke. My theory is it just wore out from Danny’s thumbs pressing against it. At 14, he is the youngest member of the family. He is also the one who communicates constantly in what is called “real time.” Like many kids his age, Danny doesn’t have an e-mail address. Texting and instant messaging are his preferred forms of communication because they are instant.
I don’t send or receive many texts. Typing with one or two fingers feels too awkward. I’m also not very proficient in the various spelling shortcuts that allow Danny and his friends to use maybe 20 characters whereas I would need 40 or more.
“Dad you need to send shorter texts,” Danny told me about a year ago. He showed me some setting on my cell phone that helps you write shorter texts by anticipating what you are trying to write and inserting the characters it thinks you need.
“Danny, could you shut this thing off for me ?” I asked a day later.
My gut feeling is that soon I will be texting and instant messaging and making use of some other form of real time communication that I can’t even imagine. Danny will probably never have an email-address. When he is my age what kind of new form of communication will his children be using?
Let me know what you think.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
5 comments:
It is amazing how far technology has come since I was your son's age. You are right--by the time he is your age, there will certainly be more of the latest and greatest electronic gadgets. By then, Blackberrys, Iphones, etc. will seem so outdated.
I have a few friends with Blackberrys and they seem to have become enslaved by them. It seems like these friends are always "on" and can not detach.
I'm a 20-something and I email, text and facebook a lot now. But I still don't understand teenagers not having email addresses. I guess technology moves so fast now that it no longer takes a whole generation or decade for things to become outdated. But it's hard to keep up sometimes!!!
Can you remember when you didn't use Outlook and relied on that clunky database mail? You'll be texting before you know it and loving it. It makes life easier. - A 40-something working mother who LOVES her BlackBerry. Enslaved? Nah. Just connected and efficient.
Blackberries have become defense tools, especially in the Corporate world. These days when you get on an elevator or pass someone in a hall, if they don't want to acknowledge you, they immediately raise the blackberry up and start typing. Very irritating and unsocial. Especially with the Senior Leader types.
Thanks for the feedback.
My wife bought me a Blackberry soon after they came out. I had it for about a week and then traded it in for a more basic phone. The young woman employee thought I was nuts.
Speaking of texting while not feeling well.
My 16-year-old had to be rushed to the emergency room last night for what turned out to be a kidney stone. He was in quite a bit of pain for more than an hour. When they finally got the pain under control his first request was:
"Mom,can I have my phone."
He sent out several texts as he lay on the hospital bed with an IV tube in him.
By the way, the stonee passed and he was home that night.
Post a Comment