Thursday, February 10, 2011

dilemmas of millennial parenting

A friend is visiting, to see his daughter who's moved to New York from a small town in New England. She's 27 and making her way in our crazy business and his visit is prompted by dismay that parental phone calls and emails go unanswered for days.

"Text her," I say. "The reponse rate is better."

He shakes his head. "My thumbs are too slow. Imagine if a new invention were announced today. A social networking tool that lets you connect instantly with someone far away. Faster and less awkward than using your thumbs. All you have to do is speak into it. You can hear a person's actual voice! The telephone," he says,"was invented a century too early."

3 comments:

Rob Buccino said...

I wonder whether the preference for text exists because when you text someone, you don't have to pretend you're actually listening to them when they respond?....

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Excellent point, Rob. And did you see review of Sherry Turkles new book yesterday? She says kids prefer text over phone b/c a phone convo is “almost always too prying, it takes too long, and it is impossible to say ‘good-bye.’ "

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/books/22book.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=less%20talking%20more%20text&st=cse

Rob Buccino said...

I'll check it out. Who knew all our kids were going to become control freaks? (I wonder from whom they inherited that......)