A recent report by NPR argues that children do feel the negative effects of texting each day when being faced with confrontation. For many parents who already believe that text messaging may impact their children’s literacy skills this article may make them more leery about their children having cellphones or text messaging. However, text messaging is part of the routine of many students. They communicate swiftly with their friends and family members via text messaging. Often curtailing or cutting children off will result in arguments and negatively impact a child’s relationship with their parents or teachers. Therefore, it is important to determine the best ways to help kids understand the impacts and guide them to using cellphones in a way to improve their learning and social skills. When parents allow their children to have cellphones it is also important they speak with them about the use. We can even show our children videos to warn them about various safety issues and responsibilities that come with using a cellphone and text messaging. These should also be the conversations we have in schools versus banning cellphones. Students will continue to use cellphones and text message. We can choose to help educate and guide them!
This past Wednesday during the #PTCHAT educators, parents, principals, and other stakeholders discussed the impact of text messaging on our children’s social skills and development.
Image from Wordle.net
Parentella: Good evening everyone! Tonight we’re discussing whether texting has a negative effect on social skills. A recent NPR article argues that students do feel the negative effects of texting each day when being faced with confrontation.
lionsima: I don’t think so. In fact, kids who are shy in person have a social life through texting.
cybraryman1: I think a lot of them don’t realize the power of their texts and how they will affect others
eshwaranv: I feel that texting makes kids extra comfortable in the virtual world and consequently less confident to face the real world
Paige928: so much of what we need students to master for Per Indic require them to “infer” meaning from text. can they learn with texting?
MrsC_teach: There are some great websites that “translate” abbreviations. Can’t find all of them but here’s one: Noslang.com
cybraryman1: The No Slang Dictionary on www.noslang.com is PG
louwinsr: Teens are so comfortable with it they don’t see it as an intrusion into ‘their’ world.
ohboymama: Elementary School age is too young, IMO! How young is too young for a cell phone?
Important links shared:
- CNN article about texting and teen/adult disconnect
- NPR article mentioned with the PEW study!
- Text Messaging and Social Skills: A Parent’s Perspective
Parentella was created to solve the issue of parent and educator communication at elementary, middle school and high school levels. As part of this mission, we are hosting weekly #PTCHAT discussions to encourage a productive dialogue between parents and educators. We hope you will join us Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST.
You may also want to join Parentella on Facebook to keep updated. We invite you to propose questions for upcoming topics. View the entire transcript here.
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