Glad to be informative. I love learning stuff!!!! And I especially like LEARNING HOW TO LIVE LONGER!!!

These teens today, well they don't have a clue. If it doesn't look like a cell phone, or an IPOD, they won't even touch it. No one goes to the library anymore. No one bothers to read. I wonder how Barnes and Nobles and our local book store even stays in business. All you really have to do is go to Yahoo or Google and you get the latest info on ANYTHING.

But the sad truth is our teens and young people are yahooing anyone or googling anyone. They're doing the myspace thing and doing text messaging.

Want to know what I found out yesterday while Alan and I were in Dr. Fred's office waiting room??? I was sitting next to to teenagers who were both on their cell phones. Smart looking gadgets, blue flashing lights, all bells and whistles. (Now I have a $19.99 pre-paid little cell thing that only makes phone calls, CAUSE I DON'T NEED IT TO DO ANYTHING BUT MAKE PHONE CALLS OR RECEIVE PHONE CALLS), so every 4 months, I put $50 on it and Alan and both use it for the Access-a-ride or if I go shopping and I have to phone home to see (Alan, do you want this kind of cereal or whatever).

So I start a dialogue with these two teenagers (thank god, I know how to talk to kids, they don't diss me or dismiss me, they seem to be interested when you ask them questions, IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS.. And because I like to learn stuff, well, teens are FULL OF NEW STUFF!!!

So I'm asking questions about text messaging and I get "oh we don't know how much the bill is, our parents pay for everything". I said "how many text messages are you allowed?" and she goes "Oh I have no idea, my parents are in charge of paying the bills, we just use the phone, (and they're giggling up a storm like two complete idiots). So I just smile and say "do you ever use these in the classroom?" and GET A LOAD OF WHAT I WAS TOLD!!!

She leans over conspiratorily and whispers "yeah, we do, but we're not supposed to" I said "really?? how come?" and she whispers, "They search us before we go into class, they make everybody walk through metal detectors and if they find the phones they take it away from us". So I said "why, whatever for?" and she says:

"Well, if one class takes a test, then they take a picture of all the answers and send them to their friends, or they do the text message thing and they ask their friends what the answers are". Try imagining a bunch of kids in one room, giving each other the answers because they are all text messaging each other!!!! But the best was when she said, (still whispering), "Oh, the best part of having a phone that can go on the internet is that if you are taking a test, you just go on yahoo, and type in the questions and you can find out what you need to know, you don't have to study anymore. My friend does this all the time in Spanish Class".

I said "what do you mean she does this in Spanish Class"? She said "well, she has to translate stuff and she can't learn spanish so she just goes to a translation service online and gets the answers".

I just looked at these two (very smart cookies) and said "wow, how original". and they were beaming like the two clueless idiots they actually were.

AND THESE ARE OUR FUTURE DOCTORS AND SPECIALISTS????


Give me a break!!!!