San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mona Gable says if it wasn’t already hard enough raising a teen-ager, the popularity of IM has made it worse:
“What I do know is that the communication between teens and parents is fraying in ways that it never has before, and that intimacy is being sacrificed for the thrill of speed and the gratification of the moment.”
Gable’s your typical not-really-tech-savvy parent, which you pick up when she writes about yanking her son’s IM privileges after his latest report card arrived.
“He is hopelessly enslaved to instant messaging, in the way previous generations of teens were hopelessly tethered to the telephone. “You’re killing me!” he shouted as I headed for the nearest land line to call my Internet Service Provider to yank his browser.”
What did she do, call EarthLink?:
“Hello, computer person? My son got a bad report card, so would you come over and close his browser-thingy? What do you mean ‘Hit the X myself? Huh? Listen, I can’t even understand you, you sound like you’re in India or something…”
Despite the lack of tech cred, the column is worth a read, especially if you’re in said situation.
Via Obscure Store
