Am I making my kids intellectually challenged??

In true form, I am taking a full load of classes over the summer in the hopes of accelerating this process so I can hurry up and return to the world of deadlines, drama and office gossip.  I am taking a business communications class and the other day the topic of kids and technology came up; Specifically, how by giving our kids all of the popular gadgets before ensuring that they have a strong interpersonal communication background {they can actually carry on a real life face-to-face conversation} is crippling them as they move into the future and need to do things like:

• Become involved with school activities requiring them to "TALK" to people
• Interview for a job
• Interview to get into college
• {Gasp...and Heaven forbid...although very realistic} Require some sort of therapy requiring them to...again with the gasp SPEAK!!!

USA Today named 2010 as "The Year We Stopped talking to one another".  The article can be accessed here but here are some tidbits that may or may not surprise you:

• 93% of Americans use cell phones
• 1/3 of these technology toting Americans use smart phones {I thought this would be higher}
• Between June 2009 and June 2010 there were 1.8 trillion text messages sent in the U.S.

Now, I have unlimited texting because I am a text-er!!  I stay so busy I have to look at my phone {HA} to see what day of the week it is.  I don't have to track my texting because it is unlimited but I know there have been months where I went over 6k texts in one month.  As I sit here {slightly embarrassed} and think about how many texts I would need to send per day to achieve this rediculous feate I am puzzled.  Realistically I bet I average about 100 texts per day {What!!!  Ok now I am really emabrrassed}.  No wonder I never have time for anything...but in my defense, I am able to communicate with friends and family that I otherwise wouldn't because I don't have time to sit on the phone.  Ask my friends...I have to schedule phone calls...SIGH...I'm rationalizing....:(

The point here is WHAT IS THE COST!!!!

Michael Osit, a clinical psychologist who has written a book, "Generation Text", that talks about the disadvantages and dangers of raising children in this extreme digital age, makes some interesting points about this issue which has become the norm in so many homes and families {including my own}.  Are we raising generation "TEXT"?  He makes the observation that our children have "access and excess available...in today's 24/7 digital age".  Click on the book title above to read the article from Pricenton's business newspaper about this man.

This next article courtesy of The Telegraph {One of my favorite UK publications} is short but I love it.  The author, Matthew Moore, interviews this women who has some very insightful views on this issue.  She uses the word "infantilising" to describe what is happening to the minds of our kids.  The article states that "Regular web users displayed a need for constant reassurance typical of small babies...".  Unfortunatley, the vidoe can no longer be seen but the ultimate comparison in her interview is this:

"I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf,"

I want to close this post out with some statistics to consider...just stick them in your back pocket for a rainy day:) 

• 71% of teens actively maintain a facebook account

• 75% of the older generation maintain a facebook account
• OK let me break it down because I am now at an age where that word older bugs me out:/  YIKES!
• Millenials (aged 14-26)
• Generation X (aged 27-43)
• Boomers (aged 44-62)
• Matures (aged 63-75)

• 88% of teens have witnessed cruelty to another teen on a social networking site.

• 25% of teens have had an experience on a social networking site that led to a face-to-face confrontation

• 22% have had an experience resulting in the ending of a friendship

• 33% of internet sex crime relationships were initiated via a social networking site

• As of June 2011, 38% of facebook users were age 13 and under and only 62% of parents with kids ages 13-16 are friends with their kids on facebook!!!!! 

Thank you for spending your time with me today!  I know this isn't my typical fun light hearted type of topic but it is one that i think is important so thank you for indugling me!


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Love, Beth