"I feel more comfortable texting friends, because face-to-face you run out of things to talk about," the 17-year-old high school senior from San Mateo said. "When you're texting, the conversation doesn't have any awkwardness. And when you run out of things to say, it's over."
In an article from the San Francisco Chronicle, I spied a trend alarming to me. Teens and twenty-somethings are finding electronic communication preferable to face-to-face encounters, both socially and in the workplace. In fact, staff writer Carolyne Zinko quotes a therapist who is offering counseling to these young people - on line!
So often, children who "go off the deep end" are depicted in the news as being loners - isolated from their peers. The virtual life they establish on line seems to exacerbate the problem. Though they may be having more interaction with others than if they were outside riding a bike, I don't believe the majority of that communication is positive.
Perhaps some of you saw a special recently aired by one of the major network news organizations. They asked groups of teens to role play real-life situations they've experienced on websites like My Space and Xanga. The exchanges between these children, who hadn't known each other prior to this "experiment," were appalling. And when one particularly aggressive young lady was put into a room to meet those whom she was disparaging on line. . . her tune changed immediately. She obviously said things electronically she'd never say to someone's face.
Please read Ms. Zinko's article. It is fascinating.
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