A Teenager Could Have Figured This Out

A recent study was conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the University of Michigan's Department of Communication Studies shows that teens are very attached to their cellphones. They have also embraced text messaging ("texting") as a regular form of communication. While teens love this, parents and schools do not.


Um...please don't accuse me of over-analyzing this. But, let's see: texting is a perfect way to send short, blunt messages under your desk / dinner table  with only a few muscles being moved. Slowly, it seems, texting is taking the place of calling, which is much more obvious to a parent / teacher, since the phone is stuck to your ear -- much more conspicuous. So, let's see: kids love it because they can get away with it, and teachers and parents hate it because their kids get away with breaking school rules, and doing so in a very unnoticeable manner.


Wow, this really is intuitive. Moreover, the survey also says more than 75% of the 800 teens, ages 12 through 17, own a cellphone. More than half of those who own a cellphone admitted to texting during school or other times when using a cellphone for its primary use -- calling -- would normally be prohibited. In addition, the survey also found that teenagers who pay for their own cellphone bills are more likely to "sext" (sending sexy text messages; use your imagination here) than teens who either have their parents pay the phone bill or pay a fraction of it.


Again, this seems obvious: does one really want their parents knowing who they are texting or what the text messages contain if they are sending messages or pictures that are sexually explicit?


This next bit of information is also not surprising: teenage girls are more likely to have their cellphones monitored than teenage boys, although the younger the age, the more parents say they use features such as GPS, by calling to check in, or via a teen's favored method of communication, through text messages. (What I'm writing here is that texting may actually have a potential use for parents.)


Let me just quickly summarize what this survey has proven:

• teenagers love being able to be constantly connected with their friends
• parents and teachers hate it when kids break the rules
• teenagers love breaking rules and getting away with it
• teenagers are less likely to break rules when their parents know what they are doing

So, all in all, this survey just proved, once again, what we already knew.