and the evr changing Secret Society
It's so true that most people over 40 text because the world kind of made them. The world went from voice talking to voice messaging to text messaging and nobody said a word, literally. Then one day, boom you were either in or you were out. Most of us were out and it's been catch-up ever since. But, then again, i love playing catch-up!
The ever changing "slanguage" of texting is so foreign to most adults with kids in HS that even the coolest parents are left out of some parts of the texting ecosystem. Samantha, my 17 year old daughter is doing her best to keep me looped in, but it's not easy. The FedEx guy used to talk fast, but he couldn't come close to keeping up with Sam and her texting pals. Absolutely Positively-not even close! Maybe we got Rock and our parents didn't and that created our freedom. Our own universe. But make no mistake, the gap created by this technology newbie is even wider. More secretative, seductive and social- it's not like they just listen as we did to music, they create as they jam!
How ironic that our kids love our music, yet the distance of "getting it" is as wide as ever-est. Across the Universe, the "Movie" was the ideal platform for cross generational Beatles kum-by-ya just as this summer's 40th Anniversary of Woodstock is. But between the Facebook Wall and the linguistic key stroke barrier of texting, being "linkedin" is just not easy with kids. So what is a "teen-ager" parent to do to stay in their relevant loop? Pry, spy? Yeah! Kidding!! No way!
Show interest. Ask questions. Not alot, just alittle. They'll bring you in, then let you out, pretty fast. Listen, i'm no Facebook "afaceinado" but i get it, somewhat. And, Sam loves to say "OMG my dad has a Facebook page" and i love to hear it. On the text side, like most of my peers, we text at the speed of lite. Sure, the new "digi-phones" make it easier. Like speaking french in Paris- clearly and obviously a stranger in a strange land thing, but as strange as it is, somehow we find the "words" to find the toilet... or is that the lou? Regardless, it's being part of Paris that is worth the experience and yes, always worth talking about!
XOXO GTG
