Ancient Form Of Communication
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 6:58AM
When A Certain Child in our house lost all facebook and cell phone privileges a few weeks back, a weird thing happened: she did not know how to talk to her friends. It seems that the modern child has no concept of how to talk on a phone.
I remember in 2nd grade a whole unit on phone manners in school. We would pair up and each kid would sit on one side of a divider and we would pick up phones and practice talking to each other. We went over proper greetings and what to say if a stranger called, etc.
And then we went home and prank called each other.
Caller ID has ruined all the fun.
But now? Kids don't talk if they can't text or IM or chat or whatever. After a couple of weeks though, A Certain Child and friends have broken down and started using . . . oh the horror of it all . . .our land line phone.
But they don't actually know how to do that.
The other night, our phone rang at 10:40 p.m. In my head, the phone only rings at that hour if someone is dead.
Me: Hello?
Teenage Male Voice: Hey.
Me: Hey?
TMV: You called.
Me: Who is this?
TMV: Austin
(please note, that between my 3 children, we know about 30 Austins.)
Me: Austin who?
TMV: Um. Oh. I. Well. Never mind.
I guess no one was dead.
My own child is not any better. The next day a different Teenage Male Voice called and asked for A Certain Child. I made him run the gauntlet of telling me his name (it took him three tries) before I handed off the phone. A Certain Child said, "Hello" and then had no idea what to do.
Obviously if you are a teen on the phone you are supposed to dart up to your room and close the door and talk in hushed tones. But A Certain Child does not know this. A Certain Child just sat there in the middle of the kitchen with all of us staring. ACC blushed furiously, told the Teenage Male Voice that she was busy and hung up.
I laughed and explained the run upstairs and shut yourself in your room maneuver.
The good news is that ACC won't be getting the cell phone back for quite a while. Plenty of time to practice.
Teens
Reader Comments (13)
This is so true that it is sad, but funny. #1 in our house has lost the same privliges and is COMPLETELY lost as to how to communicate with the outside world. I asked him last weekend why he wasn't hanging with his friends (he is not grounded from that) and he said that he didn't know what was going on. I mentioned using the phone to CALL and TALK to them, and he looked at me like I had three heads. LOL We are raising an entire generation that has no idea how to communicate or spell!
Oh my I was really laughing here.
Having two teenagers I remember getting our phones the three of us shared 700min. Not cool we would run over all the time. I then got unlimited texting and I'm not sure eaither one has talked on their phone again.
ha!! my dad might have reached through the phone and killed anyone who called past 10:00.
This is so funny, yet so true. I'm a teacher and have noticed that the kids would rather text than actually talk to each other. Maybe we need to go back to teaching how to talk on the phone and all the rules and ettiquette that go wtih it. It's also refreshing to see parents that actually stick to their guns as far as punishment goes.
Oh, the things I have to look forward to! Awkward teens are pretty much at the top of that list.
Love this. I remember going through those telephone etiquette lessons (and I actually learned something). What a great idea for teachers to go through with kids again. And you're right, caller ID has pretty much taken the fun out of prank calling, especially when it's teens calling from your phone without permission.
Haha I'm smack in the middle of the calling/texting era. I remember talking to boyfriends on the phone, hiding my head under a pillow so my sisters couldn't eavesdrop. I remember THREE WAY CALLING and my friends' moms both picked up and trash talked me unknowingly while me and my friend sat silently on the line in horror. I remember hitting *67 to hide your phone number (or was that to dial someone back? Before redial?)
It's been weird, with this new boyfriend we don't call. We text. And there's so much to check - you've got to check your text messages, your email, your facebook, all to see what the other person is doing. The ridiculous thing about texting is that sometimes it takes you longer to text than to pick up the phone and say what you wanted!
For your sake, I hope you don't get any more 10:40PM calls!!
I love it! Good for her and you!
As a late cellphone adopter (I was a 20 year old college student at the time) it took me a while to get into the whole texting thing. But I do find it funny that my friends have 20 different places where they can leave me messages of some sort now and I have to check all of them if I want to get them all. Eg. A comment on my blog about the post followed by a want to grab coffee on Sunday.
Some of my friends drive me nuts with the amount of texting they do.
That is very funny. I just thought to myself last night,"I cannot wait until 10 years from now!" I was feeling exasperated. Then I though,"Yeah, having a 19 yr. old, a 17 yr. old, and a 12 yr. old is going to be SO MUCH MORE FUN." (Do I have to point out that the second thought was sarcastic? :) Michaela already knows how to do more on my phone than I do. But, my kids do well on the phone as well, at least right now.
I remember taking the phone into my room but it was attached to yards of phone cord!!
I'm really trying to wrap my head around this whole texting thing. Firstly, I totally suck at it. Secondly, I can totally carry on a conversation 100 times faster than the amount of time it takes to text and send it off. Thirdly, I always end up sending the blasted message off halfway through writing it because I screw up. But kids? They're like idiot savants...they can't manage to carry on a normal conversation in person but can scribe a text worthy of Hawthorne or Steinbeck. I'm stymied. Seriously. =)
Mindy
www.thesuburbanlife.com
Makes you wish for the good old days, doesn't it? When parents had some
control over their childrens' communication. I could always track that
phone cord!
Mom