Text Messaging = Lost Art

Text messaging has created an entire new communication platform. Our youth and young adults who have grown up on the television via video games to the web 2.0 TV have also forgotten how to talk on the phone.

In a galaxy called the 1970's it used to be adding the second phone so mom and dad could actually get a call in between teenagers lost on the dial tone. Now they lower their foreheads and stare at a screen designed for no one.

Our youth are quickly becoming walking zombies. They cannot put this drug down. Most of them have even downloaded (thanks again to mom and dad not looking at their wireless bill closely) endless ring tones so they know the important people who refuse to talk to them via voice.

Our children are text messaging at alarming rates. The carriers no longer care about the bandwidth of the voice path they are focused clearly on the data path and where they can take market share from their competition all to place a small click through ad on your 2 inch screen. You know what, you can see the ad better than you can read the type in your Messaging. Is there a message in the bottle there folks?

Parents need to take charge. No phones until they have a drivers license and no drivers license until they have a 3.0 grade point average. Goals that cannot be broken. We believe a cell phone is a great device for safety. It has hardly been evolving in that direction!

Everyone should take a step back and remember what is was like pre cell phone era. Absolutely support the use of cell phones when your children are away and you want to be able to monitor their well being. But every day? A device like this is too tempting to teens and could get them distracted when in class or even worse driving a car or other motor vehicle.

There are special phones that have locked down capabilities on the market today. Verizon has one that has only 4 buttons that a parent can pre program for specific phone numbers. We applaud this move and investment as it gets back to the true intentions of the phones real benefit.

Text Messaging Addiction

Parents, it's time to take back your children. The major carriers have implemented new ways for us to slowly but surely ween the children of the addiction. How do you do this? Glad you asked.

First, call your carrier. Ask them if there is a way to lock the phones down during specific hours and days of the week. Get a hold of their school class schedule and then map the class room hours to the phone number and BLOCK the phone from being used.

Now I know what you are thinking. What if there is an emergency. Well with Verizon (which is our carrier) we can unblock the blocks for specific phone numbers which we added on the web site provided by Verizon. It took 10 minutes of our time. Now our son can no longer receive or send text messages during each of his schedules classes during the Monday through Friday hours.

If an emergency were to occur we added four phone numbers that he can call, text or receive the same from 24hrs per day every day. Its a start!