By Rick Garcia
I guess I’m at the age where I succumb being labeled as “Old Schooler.” It’s more devastating when it comes from the mouth of my own children. Their litany of complaints admonishing me from not keeping up with the latest bells and whistles on the smart phone or capitalizing on the most cutting edge social media apps that further push Facebook or blogging into the “Old Schooler” category. I guess the minute I share the same platform or interest, they move on to “cooler” and quicker apps to prevent me from cramping their style.
I get it. They’re growing up. It’s classical parenthood. It’s comparable to chaperoning your teen’s homecoming dance or belting out techno-pop songs or shopping at the mall with a ten-yard buffer between you and your teens.
However, when I turn the tables and look at the “Social Grace” of how manners and respect are handled by the younger generation – there’s my “Ah-ha” moment where they are cramping my style.
In my dialogue with youth groups, where I occasionally I take them out on a volunteer project, many of them are wonderful and thoughtful kids. However, I find little eye contact, lax body language and incredibly, limited vocabulary of meaningful words derived from the “King’s English”. More fascinating were their manners at the table – Caps still on their head, elbows on the table and of course the one-handed texting maneuver with their Dr. Dre Beats headphones.
The art of verbal and nonverbal communication among the millennial generation, in my humble opinion, is going to hell in a hand basket. How many parents have tried calling their kids end up leaving a voice message, while at the same turn sending a text message and getting a quicker response back?
I’m not pointing fingers at your perfect child. I’m pointing the finger at modern parenting and the fast pace, seven-second attention span culture that we live in today’s society. Regrettably, the wonderful world of technology has created a “Stop-Gap” between families, where we are overloaded with information and choices and demanding immediate or “real-time” response. It’s no wonder our kids are already wired differently from us parents, presumably speaking, of the late boomers and Gen-X.
It’s apparent that our children are conditioned to multi-tasking and thinking linear. Everything they need to know can be “googled” with an index finger or thumbed on their devices. Add the earbuds and any other distractions (i.e. Television, homework, working out, and God forbid…driving), and now you have a recipe for social disaster and danger of physical safety.
According to the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan, 84% of mobile device users keep their mobile device within 10 feet at all times and worldwide mobile use is at 5.3 billion compared to personal computer or PC use at 1.1 billion. So what that means is in the U.S. we have more mobile subscribers than we do population (327 million versus 315 million)
If I had the power, I would like to see a “Shut-Off Mobile Day” where families would turn off their mobile phone for just one entire day. If you’re a parent saying it’s impossible because the line of work or business depends on it – believe it or not there was once a thing called a computer or a LAN Phone. Remember, our children imprint and learn from the parent or guardian. Would you sacrifice one day to have quality face to face communication with your child? Imagine the cease of texting, facebook, pinterest and tweets and instead, having the “Old School” way of conversation around the dinner table or for that matter, an awareness of their surroundings. Now that would be a Miracle on 34th Street.
Rick Garcia, a nonprofit executive, a civil rights advocate, blogger and a contributing writer for The New Citizens Press can be reached at rrgarcianrg@gmail.com
This was printed in the December 30, 2012 – January 12, 2013 Edition
