The Best Way to Kill Texting

Cingular Wireless is trying to bridge the generation gap between parents who don't understand the language of texting and their children. Cingular, the largest cell phone company, will be holding interactive "texting bees" nationwide after the first of the year to teach parents how to send text messages to their children. It's all cloaked in the grand scheme of things to make the texting world a better place for mom, dad and their children. Of course, it's a marketing strategy to sell more cell phones. While the Cingular "texting bees" are not likely to have a major impact on anything, they do point out the fragile nature of today's runaway digital trends. You see, mom and dad might be able to invade the sacred space of their younger ones, but that's not the real danger. The real danger to the current texting craze is more likely to come from their brothers and sisters. There is already anecdotal evidence that the "next next" generation may not be as big a proponent of texting. To them, it's so -- well, so 2000. Not true of today's college-aged student. One student I know was outraged at her cell phone company for "overcharging" her for text phone messages --- that was, of course, until they proved to her that she indeed used every excessive minute on texting. She's now on a budget to pay down her mobile debt. All of this is quite interesting but that's not its main significance. For those of us in music related media, don't lose sight of the fact that trends are trends for reasons (because they go up and down) and these days the new rule of thumb is: the faster digital behavior becomes a craze, the faster it can crash and burn. That's worth thinking about (when you're not multitasking).