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I’ve been bothered for a long time about how communication continues to become less and less personal. Home offices... e-mailing... texting... allows us to work and even entertain from the privacy of our home. We don’t have to go anywhere! As mature adults, hopefully we don’t delude ourselves into thinking this is a fabulous way of communicating. Efficient, perhaps; but encouraging camaraderie, no.
How to Say No and Keep Your Friends, 2nd Ed.
A must back-to-school reading for your teen!
 Too Smart for Trouble
Helping grade K-4 children think on their own!
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However, children and teens are learning poor communication styles—--little eye contact, misunderstandings, abbreviated spelling (if you can call it that?), the ease of gossiping or bullying and “talking” without true emotion. I recently read an opinion column in The Dallas Morning News written by Caitlin Lake, a high school junior. She had such wonderful insight on this issue saying that texting is keeping her generation from making eye contact and is the least personal way possible to talk.
She sees her friends texting in movies theatres, in the bathroom, in church and often during tests at school as one student texts the answers to another. And she worries about her girlfriends who “meet” someone texting and then go on a date with them.
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She says, “Parents, I implore you to please know exactly who your teenagers are going on dates with and exactly how they met.” She asks teachers to take up cell phones before every test as she reports, “Cheating is such a rampant problem in my high school that honest students are finding it impossible to compete with dishonest ones.”
Out of the mouth of babes...
Copyright © 2008, Sharon Scott. No reproduction without written permission from author.
P.S. Please check out my other column, “SmileNotes”
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Sharon Scott, LPC, LMFT, is an internationally recognized family counselor with a private practice in north Texas. She is considered the leading expert on peer pressure having trained more than one million people across the U.S. and in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain, Malaysia, the Philippines, Turkey, and Micronesia in her proven techniques. For information on bringing Sharon to your community or school to present one of her 29 dynamic workshops for children, teens, parents, or educators, please see her website www.SharonScott.com .
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Listen to
Families Online Radio Interview with Sharon Scott
Books That Work!
By Sharon Scott
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Sharon is the author of eight award-winning books including four on the topic of peer pressure.
 The guide for parents/educators on how to peer-proof children and teens is Peer Pressure Reversal: An Adult Guide to Developing a Responsible Child, 2nd Ed.
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Her best-selling book for teens, How to Say No and Keep Your Friends, 2nd Ed., empowers kids to stand out—not just fit in!  A follow-up book for teens, When to Say Yes! And Make More Friends, shows adolescents how to select and meet quality friends and, in general, feel good for doing and being good.
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 Sharon also has a charming series of five books for elementary-age children each teaching an important living skill and “co-authored” with her savvy cocker spaniel Nicholas who makes the learning fun. Their book on managing elementary-age peer pressure is titled Too Smart for Trouble - More Info.
Peer Pressure Experienced by Teens, Adolescents and School-age Children. Parenting Advice.
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