Month: April 2008

Text Messaging

As a father of a 10 year old, I know the time will come when my son will “need” a cell phone. What once was a convenience has now become a necessity. I’ll gladly pay his bill as long as he uses his phone wisely. If he goes over his minutes (which will be limited), he will have to pay the charges.

I bring this up because I have heard horror stories about kids abusing their cell phone privileges. In fact, many kids and adults as well, are addicted to phone messaging. The main culprit is text messaging. With texting you can send messages without talking, so you do not disturb anyone around you. People become addicted to this convenient way of communicating with their friends, and like all addictions, it ends up messing up their lives. Important responsibilities are traded for messaging. Bills go unpaid, appointments are missed, and one’s priorities become generally turned upside-down.

I recently heard of a teenager who racked up a $500.00 bill due to excessive texting. Besides the financial toll, texting can lead to tendonitis in the thumbs and fingers. Students use their phones to cheat on tests, and many lose sleep because they are up all night chatting with friends. Perhaps the scariest thing about texting is that it is causing the English language to deteriorate. Many teachers report that texting abbreviations and jargon are showing up in formal academic writing. I’m not against texting, but like most things, there has to be a limit. We can’t allow text messaging to be the downfall of civilization.

The thought has entered my mind that an addict might not be constantly thinking about drugs, but rather in a certain moment they feel that they cannot live without it. You see, everyone has that one thing that they are addicted to. Whether it is work, gambling, shopping, pornography, sports, women, or merely superstition that controls them, everybody has something that they feel they either can’t or won’t live without. Almost everyday someone goes through a moment in time where they are a slave to a certain will or desire. For me it has never been drugs, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have an addict’s mentality sometimes. True, these slaves of mine will probably never land me in jail, cost massive amounts of money, or end with me in a pine box, but they could cost me in moral values, hinder my walk with Christ, or even take up my time. I do believe that the problems that we have now are the problems that we will have in our 50’s. For some reason, I have never seen being a drug addict as just a problem. It has always been a foreign language to me until now. Working with these kids has opened my eyes to the plain and simple fact that they just have a problem, the same as me, you and everyone else on this planet.

Adam Byrd

The Choking Game

I recently heard a story in the news about the latest craze. It seems that teens are getting high without the use of substances like drugs and alcohol. It’s called “The Choking Game, The Fainting Game, Black Out, or Pass Out.” The demographic is pre-adolescent and adolescent boys. They use a rope, a belt, their hands, or some other kid of tool to cause temporary asphyxiation. They usually choke themselves or each other until they pass out. The effect is a dream-like state of euphoria that lasts for a few seconds/minutes.

It’s obvious that this can cause neurological damage due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. There have been reported deaths due to the choking game. Because this phenomenon is not well-known and misunderstood, it is important to be aware of the symptoms:

• Your child keeping a rope, or plastic bag
• Bloodshot eyes
• Headaches
• Marks on the child’s neck