When my cell phone beeped at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday to let me know I had a text, I thought it would be a message from my dad, who wakes up early and if he has a question or a statement to make bright and early, he’ll send it in 160 characters or less.
It doesn’t matter if it’s at 7 a.m. on a day I don’t have to be up until 8 or whether it’s a weekend – technology allows him to communicate instantly and he’s going to do it.
The message that arrived Tuesday morning was not from my dad, but from his grandson, my 15-year-old son.
“What time is practice?” he asked, choosing to send me an electronic message from his spot on the living room couch rather than walking a few dozen feet to my bedroom to speak to me in person. Had he chosen the latter route, he also would have noticed that I was not yet awake and perhaps he would have delayed his question until I shuffled over to the kitchen.
His early-morning message on a Spring Break day also woke up my wife, who would have gotten five more minutes of sleep before the alarm sounded.
“Who is texting you so early?” she asked.
“It’s Andrew,” I said. “He wanted to know what time baseball practice is today.”
“Are you kidding?” she said, still half-asleep.
I thought about texting her my reply, but that would’ve been funny to only one of us.
Why was a high school sophomore awake before 8 a.m. during a vacation week anyway? I have to practically remove all of his bedding, turn on his light, open his shades and start poking him in the arm on a regular school day to rouse him.
Now he had the chance to sleep in until noon and he was texting me about baseball practice.
I responded to his question about practice by text, of course, because that was much easier than getting out of bed to go talk to him, and the conversation ended.
We parents sometimes question or criticize the methods of the younger generation, but we are not immune to the temptations of technology.
If I’m ordering sandwiches from Subway for a family member who is not there, I ask them to text me their order so I can get it right.
When I need a list for the grocery store, I ask my wife to text it to me so I can be sure to get it right.
When the Niners sign a new player or the Giants get a win, I text my sons to share the news and they text me back with their reaction. I can’t believe people used to actually wait until we were face-to-face to have conversations in the old days. That was so 20th century.
Now, we can’t wait to share information. We also can’t be bothered to share information using our voices while making eye contact. If we can’t say it in fewer than 160 characters, it’s not worth saying.
My 15-year-old hardly ever needs 160 characters when he is texting his parents. A quick review of my text record with him reveals a whole lot of “K” replies, a few “OK” replies – if he was feeling particularly chatty – and a few yes’s and no’s.
OMG, it’s the way of the world, I guess, so any way to keep the lines of communication open between a teen and his parents is fine by me.
Adam Breen teaches newspaper and yearbook classes at San Benito High School and is a reporter for The Pinnacle. He is former editor of the Free Lance. If you’re related to him, send him a text. Otherwise, he can be reached by email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @AdamPBreen.
