Technology is changing the world again. Oh, noes! Woe is us. The New York Times, the nation’s self-proclaimed newspaper of record, recently ran an article that seemed to be all about lamenting that teenagers send a lof of those new-fangled texts.

The Pew Research Center found that half of American teenagers — defined in the study [...]]]> by Richard

Technology is changing the world again. Oh, noes! Woe is us. The New York Times, the nation’s self-proclaimed newspaper of record, recently ran an article that seemed to be all about lamenting that teenagers send a lof of those new-fangled texts.

The Pew Research Center found that half of American teenagers — defined in the study as ages 12 through 17 — send 50 or more text messages a day and that one third send more than 100 a day. Two thirds of the texters surveyed by the center’s Internet and American Life Project said they were more likely to use their cellphones to text friends than to call them. Fifty-four percent said they text their friends once a day, but only 33 percent said they talk to their friends face-to-face on a daily basis. The findings came just a few months after the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 spend on average 7 1/2 hours a day using some sort of electronic device, from smart phones to MP3 players to computers — a number that startled many adults, even those who keep their BlackBerrys within arm’s reach during most waking hours.

The story leads with a lamentation that kids don’t play outside or talk to each other face-to-face, an obvious generalization that can be disproven rather quickly by looking outside my window. Zippy the Monkey Boy and two friends, one from school and one from the neighborhood, are out there skateboarding down the street. Speed Racer and his friend Spridle are out back using hammers to whack away at their club house. No phones in sight.

To date, much of the concern over all this use of technology has been focused on the implications for kids’ intellectual development. Worry about the social repercussions has centered on the darker side of online interactions, like cyber-bullying or texting sexually explicit messages. But psychologists and other experts are starting to take a look at a less-sensational but potentially more profound phenomenon: whether technology may be changing the very nature of kids’ friendships.

The question on researchers’ minds is whether all that texting, instant messaging and online social networking allows children to become more connected and supportive of their friends — or whether the quality of their interactions is being diminished without the intimacy and emotional give and take of regular, extended face-to-face time.

The earth-shaking answer to this question will shock you: It’s too early to know. Well, I’m convinced.

There’s a lot of concern in the article about how technology is going to cause the brains of our children to become rewired to pass by empathy and lose the ability to understand the nuances of body language and face-to-face interaction. I’m sure our great-grandparents felt the same way about the automobile.

Here’s the thing. People and societies do not stay static over time. Those that do tend to fail. Living life is all about change (although the change that has caused me to actually like a made bed is a little worrying) and how we adapt to it. The phone was going to make us cut off from our neighbors and now these scientists are upset because kids aren’t spending hours talking on the phone to just one person.

I think they might be worrying a bit too much. Sure it’s probably something we should keep an eye on, but there’s no need to panic. Kids will continue to seek out friends to spend time with, even without electronics.

The other day I told Zippy the Monkey Boy he needed to call his friend and ask him some questions about something that was going on during the weekend. He looked at me like I was crazy. “What?” he said. “You’ve never heard of text messages?” He laughed and said people don’t need to talk when they can text.

Was I worried? No, not really. They were trying to coordinate the food they’d need for when they spent the night out in a horse field raising money to fight cancer as part of the Drumstrong fundraiser.

Technology will change us, dude, and it will change our children faster than it will change us. But that’s not always a bad thing. Little dudes will always want to play and meet up with each other. They’re just going to be doing some of it differently than we did. Just like we did it differently than our parents did. And so on.

So, in summation, relax.

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For the last couple of years, the Webster’s New World Dictionary has celebrated the fluidity of the English language by publishing a word of the year. This word is picked “to reflect the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance and use.” So, without making you wait any [...]]]> by Richard

For the last couple of years, the Webster’s New World Dictionary has celebrated the fluidity of the English language by publishing a word of the year. This word is picked “to reflect the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance and use.” So, without making you wait any longer, here’s the word of the year for 2009.

Unfriend.

Yes, that’s right. Unfriend. Which is defined by the New World Dictionary as a verb that means “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”

Wow. I knew that social networking and such like that was a pretty big deal, but I had no idea it had gained so much currency in the world that the normally stodgy dictionary folks were looking there as a good source for new words.

“It has both currency and potential longevity,” said Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford’s U.S. dictionary program. “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.”

Previous word of the year winners have been blog, overshare and hypermiling.

You know, a lot of this stuff reminds me of a book I once read. It’s called Frindle, by Andrew Clements. In it, the main character wants to irritate a language arts teacher so he invents a new word — frindle — for pen. Soon the whole country’s using it. Which, oddly, is almost exactly what’s happening here.

Hmm. Maybe there’s a word for that. If not, there should be. Get on it.

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