Disclaimer: I can’t stand texting.
Al Mohler, always brilliant and clear, posted a great article about texting this morning (with a Flannery O’Connor reference to boot!), Stop Texting and Read This — The Thumb You Save May Be Your Own.
An excerpt,
Christian parents bear the responsibility to monitor, supervise, and limit the digital exposure of their children. Something is seriously amiss when the average teenager is sending 2,272 text messages a month. There is no way that teens can be paying adequate attention to homework, to reading, to conversation with family members, and to the interior life of the soul while listening for the phone to vibrate with a new text message every few minutes.
But I somewhat disagree with Mohler’s slight aside,
Let’s be honest, we adults have plenty to answer for when it comes to our own digital obsessions, but most parents are not sneaking text messages while feigning activity in a backpack.
True, maybe most may not, but I see far more parents openly in bondage to their phones than I would expect. We adults, especially parents, are far more open and blatant with our digital obsessions: mesmerized by the television for hours, relegating real relationships to be facilitated by Facebook, and spending more time on our phones and computers than with God and his word.
As one who spends just a few hours every week with adolescents and young adults, Moms and dads: whatever you know about the condition of your children’s digital obsessions, it is probably far worse than you think.
