The average teen sends 3000 texts a month

Here are some revolting bits of trivia.

Statistics show 80 percent of all 15 to 18-year-olds own a cell phone. And the rate of texting has sky rocketed 600 percent in three years. The average teen sends 3,000 texts a month.

 This apparently fits all the definitions of an addition.

Neuroimaging studies show the same brain areas are stimulated with both texting and using heroin.

Our Older Daughter reports that at summer camp, even though electronic gizmos weren't permitted, some girls were smuggling in cell phones.  She woke up at midnight one night and heard one of the girls stealthily texting.  Midnight, for pete's sake.  At summer camp.

Meanwhile, many teens have a working vocabulary of only 800 words.  I believe there are chimps with a larger vocabulary than that.

These teens are our future, folks.  Perhaps parents should introduce their children to a novel (literally) concept.

Feeling smug

My younger daughter switched music teachers last November. Her new lessons are held in a furnished basement studio of a family in Spokane. On our first day, my older daughter was with us but she immediately peeled off to play with the four children of the music teacher and his wife.

Later we found out it's a homeschooling family. My older daughter knew that right away. "How could you tell?" I asked her.

"Because the kids have an advanced vocabulary," she replied. (Honest, that's exactly what she said.)

So as a homeschooling parent, I felt a bit smug when I read that many teens - while they may understand around 40,000 words - have a working vocabulary of only about 800 words. This is known as "teenspeak."

Yep, smug.