Don’t you hate it (oh, a word I use reluctantly as I hear my darling father telling me as he has all my life, ‘you should never hate, you can dislike intensely darling but never hate’ and though I love you for it dad, sometimes it just feels better saying that word) when you remember certain situations in life when your parents or friends having previously warned you about something you are involved in having a negative outcome? Those words “I told you so” smugly fall out of their mouths much to you intensely disliking (for you dad) hearing it from them and knowing they were ‘right on the knocker’ with their warning? Well some time ago I gave my loved ones a premature warning about how I felt mobile phones and texting had the possibility of getting ‘out of hand’ and how right I was.
I remember chatting to a group of parents in our front yard one evening after waving our sixteen year old darlings off to their semi-formal. The subject was mobile phones. Yes, we had all ensured that each of them had ‘theirs’ on them for the ‘just in case’ situations which could occur during the evening and knowing we would be contactable. The conversation then turned into how reliant we as parents were becoming and how reliant our teens had already become on these pieces of technology. One parent said something which I totally agreed with and that was that these mobiles were, in his eyes, starting to cause anxiety in teens. Gosh how true that statement has become today.
On researching this topic I have since discovered that the words textaholic, textiety and textaphrenia exist now in this massive texting world. ‘Anxiety, insecurity, depression and low self-esteem have all been identified as symptoms common among text-addicted teenagers’ according to researchers.
‘A researcher at the RMIT in Melbourne stated that texting had become meshed into teenagers’ lives. The word textaphrenia is thinking you've heard a message come in or felt the device vibrate when it actually hasn't. Textiety is the anxious feeling of not receiving any texts or not being able to send any. "With textaphrenia and textiety there is the feeling that 'no one loves me, no one's contacted me,” Dr Jennie Carroll stated’ (information extracted from the Herald Sun, June 30, 2010.)
In different articles I have read on this disturbing topic, one teenager was found to have sent 4000 text messages over a nine day period. Another stated that she had to change her mobile plan as she had received a bill $800 one month.
Not only do we have some serious problems arising but also ‘repetitive thumb syndrome’ is also becoming a medical complaint from over-texting. Can you claim on your health insurance if you suffer from it? I will not be surprised if, in the future you can!
So what do we do from here? I wish I knew. I know that asking your teen to surrender mobile phones each evening to our kitchen bench to ensure a good night sleep for them though requested is often not adhered to. I have always used pre-paid plans and advised my teens how long I expect that amount of credit to last and should it be used up prior to the designated time then they are without credit on their mobile until the following month’s replenishment. As I have always made it clear to them that their mobile phones were purchased first and foremost so they could call me and vice versa at any time in any situation for safety reasons and not for the purpose of texting their friends five minutes after they have left their friends at school to tell them about the ‘hot’ boy they had just seen on the bus.
In my opinion the telco’s are no help to us caring parents as now they are offering unlimited texting plans and as far as I am concerned are simply escalating the problems.
I am wondering if in time legislation will be required, like age limits for alcohol accessibility, where plans are only obtainable for the over 25 year olds. Neuroscientists remind us constantly that the ‘reasoning’ part of the brain (prefrontal cortex) which is responsible for impulse-control, judgement, decision-making, planning, organisation and involved in other functions like emotion does not mature until 22-25 years of age. Let’s change the drinking laws and at the same time introduce mobile phone accessibility limits until these teens can indeed think reasonably.
Alternately, now I am feeling a bit James Bondish here so how about a self-destruct button we concerned parents/guardians only are privy to, where, due to excessive text usage by the teens, the adult can then press this magical button, destroying the phone and the only way the phone can be returned to normality is if, like a defensive driving course, the teens have to pass a self-control texting course.……hey I like it, I like it a lot. ‘It’s Bond, James Bond,’ oh and please bring the gorgeous Scotsman Sean Connery back while we’re at it!
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