GRAND Magazine - May 2009 - (Page 36)
SHMILY* O Forty-two percent of 13- to 17-year-old cell phone users text daily. Since Anna got her new cell phone with text messaging, her fingers are always busy, and she’s always ready to send or receive messages. She taught me how to create, send and receive, and now this is our best time to “talk” about each other’s doings (mostly hers!), as I learn about the museums she visited on her class trip to Boston, what she wore to her eighth-grade dinner dance, what movies she wants to see…. Texting the g’kids By Sally WendkoS oldS n The afTernoons when my granddaughter, Anna, 13, doesn’t have an activity after school or plans with her friends, she arrives home about three-thirty, whereas her mother doesn’t return home from work until nearly six. I used to telephone on those days—I live a two-hour drive away and am only able to pop in from time to time. Now, however, I text. How to SPK TXT Most cell phones are equipped to send text messages (also known as SMS for “short messaging service”), but for specific information on your own phone, you need to contact your mobile provider. Some plans include fees for text messages in the overall services; others charge a few cents for every message. Your grandchild would probably be delighted to show you how to text, but if she or he does not live nearby, it might be simpler to ask a technical support person at the toll-free number for your service provider. The basics are easy. You’ll soon learn to use abbreviations (c u for “see you”; wbs for “write back soon”; b4n for “bye for now”), punctuation marks and other symbols. You’ll increase your speed, too, but don’t expect to be as fast as the grandkids—they come equipped with flying fingers! If you want to be really hip when texting teenagers, use popular abbreviations that you can find at Teen Chat Decoder and Net Lingo . Her fingers fly so fast that her mother says, “I expect her to start a fire from friction alone!” I am much, much slower, so I keep my messages short, and often follow up with an old-fashioned phone call. * “See How Much I Love You” Excerpted from Super Granny: Great Stuff to Do with Your Grandkids, by Sally Wendkos Olds (Sterling, 2009). Reprinted with permission. Click and connect to more resources instantly where you see this symbol:
http://www.teenchatdecoder.com
http://www.netlingo.com/emailsh.cfm
http://omasally.blogspot.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - May 2009
GRAND Magazine - May 2009
GRAND View
Contents
GRAND Central
Watching Lily Bloom
GrandZ in the 'Hood'
Numbers Game
We're Taking In the G'Kids
Face-to-Facebook
SHMILY
Family Crews
Soul Food
Resources
GRAND Finale
GRAND Magazine - May 2009
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