I Just Texted My Kid During School

Not so long ago, I could not fathom why a parent would send a text message to their own kid knowing that kid is at school. Can’t it wait until after school? I haughtily inner-commented. I mean really, they’re in school!

I remembered those haughty inner-comments this morning when I texted my kid a question related to Thanksgiving break…while he was at school. Thanksgiving is several weeks away, deeming this question non-urgent. And yet, texting often leads to quicker answers which leads to quicker knowing and isn’t that normal?!

Immediacy is the new normal. Would I wait eight hours to ask my son a quick question? If it meant avoiding disruptions in school, absolutely yes. The truth is, however, any number of people outside of the school building also have access to him via his phone. My not sending a quick text does not mean he won’t be disrupted.

Like so many phone-related shifts in our lives, this one happened fast. Suddenly, a student could be anywhere in the world and in a classroom at the same time. With peers inside and outside of the building all at once. Which sounds like most workplaces. We can simultaneously be in a work meeting with colleagues and in a family vacation text string. Digital life often allows/requires us to be in two places at once.

Perhaps texting my kid while he is at school is prepping him for the 21st century work world. Ours is a world unlike any worker or workplace has ever seen before. It requires the ability to maintain eye contact in a conversation happening in the room, and to know how to navigate the other perhaps dozens of conversations unfolding more slowly on your phone. You are constantly triaging which conversation requires your attention.

Exhausting!

But here we are. We live in this time with particular people doing particular work using a particular kind of technology. It isn’t perfect, but neither were telegrams, or the party line system, or any other kind of technology humans have invented. As always, kids adapt quicker than adults. My kids can probably help me learn how to better find my way, after he answers the non-urgent Thanksgiving question.