difenbaker
12-29-2006, 06:11 AM
Parents say texting kids improves communication
By Carolyn Y. Johnson
The Boston Globe
Published December 28, 2006
BOSTON -- Lynne O'Connell and her teenage daughter have discovered a new way to bridge the generation gap: a cell phone screen.
She and Annie, 15, send text messages to each other throughout the day, scheduling rides, sending reminders and sometimes just talking.
"OMG!" popped up onto O'Connell's cell phone one recent afternoon.
"R U OK?" the 36-year-old mom typed back.
"I got an 83 on my Spanish quiz," Annie replied.
"OMG is right! great!" her mom pinged back.
"You know if I had asked her at dinner, `How was school today?' she'd say, `Fine,'" O'Connell said. "This gives her a way to talk to me without having to talk to me."
"Texting" -- sending brief messages by cell phone -- has grown dramatically beyond the teenage and twentysomething "thumb generation" over the past year, in part because parents are beginning to use the cell phone screen as another channel to communicate with children who otherwise might not have much to say.
M:Metrics, a mobile market research company, found that nationwide, the fastest growing group of text messagers is adults. Between September 2005 and September 2006, the number of text-message users from age 45 to 64 grew about seven times as fast as among teenagers under 18, according to their data.
Telephia, a consumer research firm, found that among Cingular users, women in their 40s are the fastest growing text message demographic and fourth largest group.
Children showed them how
The overall growth in text messaging is driven by multiple factors. There are adults who use texting to "talk" while they're in meetings and fortysomethings who text their peers. But a survey commissioned by Cingular this summer found that among 1,175 parents, nearly half said their children introduced them to text messaging, and 63 percent said it had improved communication with their child.
"You know if you show up in person, you may get the cold shoulder," said Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University. "But you know that maybe if you communicate in their medium, you may get their attention."
Texting offers a way of sending brief messages from the cell phone keyboard that aren't laden with emotion and a way of nagging "without being nagging," according to Sue Scheiner, 44, of Cambridge.
According to a texting tutorial released by Cingular Wireless and clinical psychologist Ruth Peters last summer, text messages are a way "to arm yourself with information and simultaneously raise your esteem in your children's eyes."
But texting also happens to be a good way for cell phone carriers to make money.
Users typically pay around 10 cents per message, or add text message bundles onto their voice calling plans, while the cost of transmitting the snippets of text is very little.
"Text messaging is obscenely profitable. The cost of simply transmitting 160 characters is literally next to nothing," said Roger Entner, a wireless industry analyst at Ovum. "And people who text are also becoming more loyal customers. It's an awesome return."
Any parent who can learn how to keep it brief and pick up a few abbreviations of the texting argot can open up a new and potentially effective channel of communication.
more here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0612270465dec28,1,3040855.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
cheers!
By Carolyn Y. Johnson
The Boston Globe
Published December 28, 2006
BOSTON -- Lynne O'Connell and her teenage daughter have discovered a new way to bridge the generation gap: a cell phone screen.
She and Annie, 15, send text messages to each other throughout the day, scheduling rides, sending reminders and sometimes just talking.
"OMG!" popped up onto O'Connell's cell phone one recent afternoon.
"R U OK?" the 36-year-old mom typed back.
"I got an 83 on my Spanish quiz," Annie replied.
"OMG is right! great!" her mom pinged back.
"You know if I had asked her at dinner, `How was school today?' she'd say, `Fine,'" O'Connell said. "This gives her a way to talk to me without having to talk to me."
"Texting" -- sending brief messages by cell phone -- has grown dramatically beyond the teenage and twentysomething "thumb generation" over the past year, in part because parents are beginning to use the cell phone screen as another channel to communicate with children who otherwise might not have much to say.
M:Metrics, a mobile market research company, found that nationwide, the fastest growing group of text messagers is adults. Between September 2005 and September 2006, the number of text-message users from age 45 to 64 grew about seven times as fast as among teenagers under 18, according to their data.
Telephia, a consumer research firm, found that among Cingular users, women in their 40s are the fastest growing text message demographic and fourth largest group.
Children showed them how
The overall growth in text messaging is driven by multiple factors. There are adults who use texting to "talk" while they're in meetings and fortysomethings who text their peers. But a survey commissioned by Cingular this summer found that among 1,175 parents, nearly half said their children introduced them to text messaging, and 63 percent said it had improved communication with their child.
"You know if you show up in person, you may get the cold shoulder," said Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University. "But you know that maybe if you communicate in their medium, you may get their attention."
Texting offers a way of sending brief messages from the cell phone keyboard that aren't laden with emotion and a way of nagging "without being nagging," according to Sue Scheiner, 44, of Cambridge.
According to a texting tutorial released by Cingular Wireless and clinical psychologist Ruth Peters last summer, text messages are a way "to arm yourself with information and simultaneously raise your esteem in your children's eyes."
But texting also happens to be a good way for cell phone carriers to make money.
Users typically pay around 10 cents per message, or add text message bundles onto their voice calling plans, while the cost of transmitting the snippets of text is very little.
"Text messaging is obscenely profitable. The cost of simply transmitting 160 characters is literally next to nothing," said Roger Entner, a wireless industry analyst at Ovum. "And people who text are also becoming more loyal customers. It's an awesome return."
Any parent who can learn how to keep it brief and pick up a few abbreviations of the texting argot can open up a new and potentially effective channel of communication.
more here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0612270465dec28,1,3040855.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
cheers!