Don't call meDon't call me

A few weeks ago I attended a shocking seminar on Internet safety for kids. My three teenaged girls are far smarter than I when it comes to social networking but I am no slouch when it comes to being computer savvy. The fact that I left the auditorium shocked at the eminent risk despite my extensive Internet knowledge is not what I am blogging about. It’s a small piece of that talk that my 18 year old just exemplified….

The professor speaking that night said, "Email is SO last year. Kids don’t email. They text. They use Facebook. The occasionally talk, but not much."

Think that’s not true? Check out these numbers:

November text message usage in the Farquharson household:
Emma: 4417
Kate: 4950
Madi: 7923

Remember, that’s just ONE MONTH!!!

I have five phones on the account, counting my wife and 83 year old mother. The total minutes used for talking was under 550.

So, here’s my point: If that generation is communicating primarily through the written word (and even so, by writing things like "R U gunna B @ J’s 2nite?"), where does that leave the spoken word as a sales tool when these kids get older? Sure, it will work fine when they are communicating with each other, but when the buyers are 48, like me, we have a different standard, knowwhatImean?