Is texting really that bad for our kids?

A new report examines the effect of texting and other social media on this group of millennials.

It seems to be no worse than when my generation wasted hours on mindnumbing shows like Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch.

Watching TV as a family, as mindless as that experience can be, is now regarded with nostalgia by parents. If your kid is sitting in the living room watching "American Idol," you can plop on the sofa with them, and "it's a shared experience," Gentile said. But if they're texting or video-chatting with a friend from school, "it's a private experience. It's like they're whispering secrets. And we find it rude."


Now who would ever think of watching TV as a family as nostalgic?

But my mother fondly recalled gathering around the radio with her family.

So will our kids recall fondly getting a text from us during Christmas break?

I don't know. But it's interesting time in which to live. That's for sure.

If you read this blog at all, you know I'm no fan of thinking things were really far better in the remote past even when we had less. I call falling victim to the myth of nostalgia. And the older one gets, the more of a victim they become.

Yes, every morning when I wake KoKo up her cell phone is right next to her. But is this really any different than when Mom would yell for me to get up (I had an effective alarm, but I was a mama's boy!) and I'd have my Walkman headphones around my neck? Or is this different than when my grandmother probably scolded my mother and her brothers and sister to get outside and not spend all day listening to the radio?

I doubt it. And, no, the world is not going to hell in a hand basket. I see great potential in this younger generation. In fact, it's my generation and the one just ahead of mine that really worries me!