My kids often have their friends over at our house.
One day, not too long ago, there were six of the girls' basketball friends over and they were all up in Courtney and Chloe's bedroom.
I walked by.
I stuck my head in to say hello.
When I walk in, I see ... one girl on Courtney's bed, two girls on Chloe's bed, two girls on the futon, one girl each sitting in the desk chairs, one girl on the floor and one sprawled out in the recliner near the closet. Some had their shoes off, others had pillows they were clutching, one seemed to actually be sleeping, and ... at least 4 of them had phones in their hands and were busy - like little beavers - text, text, texting away - furiously - as if, whatever they were saying in these text messages were the most interesting and most important information ever to be sent over the telegraph wires (or whatever it's called) - EVER!! Texting - like crazy - at least 4 of these girls.
I saw this craziness and asked, "What are you all doing?"
And pretty much all of them answered, in unison, "Nothin'."
I then asked if anyone needed anything and they answered that they were fine - with looks on most of their faces that indicated that they wanted me to leave.
I put my hand on the door to go and then turned back and asked, "By the way, who are you all talking to?" looking into the eyes of one of my daughters.
And 3 of the girls (including one of my own), looked up quickly in my direction and said, "Each other." And then all --- went immediately back to texting once again.
THEY. WERE. TEXTING. EACH. OTHER!!!!
They were in the very same room!!
They weren't more than 2 feet from each other!
And ... they found this to be perfectly normal!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS CRAZY PICTURE?
On the upside ... This is CRAZINESS - this texting thing! Have you ever seen it in action? Have you ever been around one of these teenagers when they perform this TEXTING? I think it might just be possible that they will soon eliminate talking altogether - they might just get to where they only ever use their computers or the texting on their phones and then they will never actually have to see any of their friends face to face or ever speak a single verbal word to any of them.
Hummmm ... maybe I need to learn this texting thing - start communicating non-verbally with my teenage daughters! Holy What-Took-Me-So-Long-To-See-The-Potential Batman ... Now that there's a brilliant idea!