When Dad Banned Text Messaging

For this final post I wrote about someone else’s post about texting. I wrote an earlier post about texting and driving and so I’m going to write some thoughts about what someone else wrote about the topic. Texting is an everyday thing for me. I don’t think I go a day without having a conversation through texting. First off I text when I wake up, at school, at work, and pretty much anytime throughout the day. My parents get mad at me I text so much. They think that texting is an addicting behavior that I need to cut back on. I think they want me to stop because they don’t text as much and are not as familiar with it as most kids are today. Texting has become a part of everyday life and its how people today prefer to communicate. Texting plays a big role in my life as it does to for Debbie Geiger who claims, “I check my blackberry on the way home from work, after dinner, before I go to bed, and as soon as I wake up.”

Parker-Pope discusses a blog post titled “When Dad Banned text messaging”. She wrote about a family from North Carolina where a dad has banned text messaging from his kids. It included how the mother felt about it and her opinions on texting. The Dad took texting away from his kids and his decision was final. He thought that the kids didn’t need to have it because it was consuming their lives. The mom on the other hand agreed with her husband but also saw things from the kid’s perspectives. She saw it as a social connection with the world that you can stay in contact with. This post caught my eye and after reading it, I could relate to the story with how my family feels about texting and cell phones. In the story the kids in the family had texting added to their cell plans after moving to North Carolina from New York. This was so the kids could stay in touch with their old friends. Like in the post I also didn’t stay in contact with my old friends but became real close to my new friends.

In the post there was a part that talked about how the kids focused on the text messages more than the parents and the people they are actually in contact with. My parents feel the same exact way, sometimes the conversations I’m having are more important than what someone is actually saying to me. Sometimes when I’m really into a conversation with someone through texting, I won’t hear a thing you’re saying to me because I’m so focused on the texting. My parents have talked to me about how it’s rude to text in front of other people, but still I do it occasionally. My dad is more annoyed by texting than my mom is. My dad also doesn’t normally ever text and my mom texts pretty frequently. I think most parents today are not as “tech smart” as their kids are these days. They don’t understand how certain things work and how to use certain technologies. Kids today prefer to text than to have actual conversations over the phone. Kids and teens can hold multiple conversations with their friends or family. Instead of having to actually talk to somebody, kids can say something short and simple through a text.

My mom is similar to Parker-Pope when it comes to texting. She likes to know where I am, ask me to do stuff, or just see what I’m up to. I would rather have my conversations through texting than talking. If I didn’t have texting I think I would feel like an outcast to. I think my mom texts so that she can stay involved in my life. With my work and school schedule, I rarely get to see my parents and when I do it’s not for a long period of time. So texting is the way me and my mom communicate most. Without text messaging I think that my mom and I wouldn’t talk as much because of our daily schedules. My dad has never been much of a texting kind of person. He had a hard time learning how to use basic computer programs such as email and using the internet and iTunes. He has got a lot better with computers over the last two years though. When we got unlimited text messaging added to our plan my dad was instantly annoyed by it. It became really natural for me and I learned how to do it pretty quickly. I assume that’s why my dad has thought about canceling texting because he doesn’t really understand how to do it well and thinks we pay more attention to the texting than having actual conversations with people.

Most parents are similar today to the parents that Tara wrote about in her blog post. Many parents today are not as technology advanced as their own kids are. Technology is used and being taught to kids more and more every year in schools. Parents today didn’t learn or use as much as we kids use today. If my mom didn’t text as much as my brother or I think my dad would have canceled the texting service a long time ago. My dad thinks that my brother and I text way too much. He thinks that we pay more attention to the phone than we do anything else. Although I can see how he would think that, I do not agree with him. I think that I do pay attention to whatever it is what I’m doing. All he sees is me constantly looking at my phone; he doesn’t see the work or tasks I complete on a daily basis. If parents today would learn to be more “tech smart” in our world today they wouldn’t have a problem with their kid’s texting excessively. Parker’s blog post in my opinion described an everyday parents feeling on texting.



Pope, Tara. “When Dad Banned Texting.” Well. The New York Times. 30 Mar. 2009. Wed. 15 Mar. 2010.